Atriplex coronata |
Atriplex glabriuscula |
|||||||||||||||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
crownscale, wedgescale |
bract orache, glabrous orach, scotland orache |
|||||||||||||||||
Habit | Herbs, erect or decumbent, 0.5–6 dm; branches terete, fructiferous almost to base, scurfy when young. | Herbs, monoecious, prostrate or sprawling, or sometimes erect, branched, (1–)2–10 dm; branches opposite or subopposite. | ||||||||||||||||
Stems | green and striped, often blue-green when fresh, weakly ridged, sparsely scurfy to glabrous. |
|||||||||||||||||
Leaves | alternate, subsessile or proximal short petiolate; blade ascending, oblong, oblong-ovate, or lanceolate to elliptic, 5–40 × 2–10 mm, thin, base acute to obtuse, margin entire, apex acute to acuminate. |
petiole 0.2–2.5(–3.5) cm; blade all entire or some or all triangular or lance-hastate with lobes spreading to antrorse, 5–100 × 3–80 mm, base abruptly to narrowly cuneate, entire or irregularly toothed. |
||||||||||||||||
Flowers | of both sexes in small axillary glomerules, 5-merous. |
in loose glomerules, arranged in foliose, interrupted spikes or axillary, terminating stems and branches. |
||||||||||||||||
Seeds | light brown to amber, 1–1.5 mm. |
dimorphic: brown, 2.5–4 mm wide (often the only ones present), or black, (1.2–)1.5–2.9(–3) mm wide; radicle median, ± antrorse, of brown seed basal and spreading. |
||||||||||||||||
Fruiting | bracteoles almost sessile, broadly cuneate, 2–5 × (2–)2.5–5 mm, united to summit, truncate at summit, sides smooth or obscurely tuberculate. |
|||||||||||||||||
Bracteoles | green, becoming black or reddish to yellow brown, sessile or some short stipitate, venation obscure, ovate-triangular to rhombic-triangular, 5–13 mm, margin united almost to middle, with few irregular teeth or entire, apex abruptly acuminate, faces irregularly muricate, tuberculate, or smooth, inflated, spongy inner layer strongly developed at bracteole base. |
|||||||||||||||||
2n | = 36. |
= 18, 36. |
||||||||||||||||
Atriplex coronata |
Atriplex glabriuscula |
|||||||||||||||||
Distribution |
CA
|
CT; MA; ME; NH; PA; AB; MB; NB; NS; PE; QC; Europe
|
||||||||||||||||
Discussion | Varieties 3 (3 in the flora). Although placed within the Atriplex argentea species complex by P. C. Standley (1916), this taxon appears more nearly allied to A. cordulata, differing mainly in leaf shape, round-ovate or deltoid-ovate to elliptic or lanceolate (not ovate to cordate-ovate), and markedly tuberculate faces of the fruiting bracteoles. (Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.) |
Varieties 3 (3 in the flora). Members of the Atriplex glabriuscula complex occupy saline or brackish marshes and saline coastal strands mainly in the eastern maritime provinces of Canada, with extensions in similar habitats into the northeastern United States. They are seldom, if ever, ruderal weeds and appear to be indigenous or perhaps early introduced in some part from similar European habitats. The constituent taxa have been regarded at specific level (P. M. Taschereau 1972; I. J. Bassett et al. 1983). They are, however, alike in all major morphologic features, and are apparently closely allied. For those who wish to treat them at specific level, the names are supplied in the synonymy. (Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.) |
||||||||||||||||
Key |
|
|
||||||||||||||||
Source | FNA vol. 4. | FNA vol. 4. | ||||||||||||||||
Parent taxa | Chenopodiaceae > Atriplex > subg. Obione > sect. Obione > subsect. Pusillae | Chenopodiaceae > Atriplex > subg. Atriplex > sect. Teutliopsis | ||||||||||||||||
Sibling taxa | ||||||||||||||||||
Subordinate taxa | ||||||||||||||||||
Synonyms | A. elegans var. coronata, Obione coronata | |||||||||||||||||
Name authority | S. Watson: Proc. Amer. Acad. Arts 9: 114. (1874) | Edmondston: Fl. Shetland, 39. (1845) | ||||||||||||||||
Web links |