Atriplex coronata |
Atriplex joaquiniana |
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crownscale, wedgescale |
San Joaquin orach |
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Habit | Herbs, erect or decumbent, 0.5–6 dm; branches terete, fructiferous almost to base, scurfy when young. | Herbs, monoecious or subdioecious, erect, sparsely branched, (1–)3–10 dm; branches obtusely angled, rather rigidly ascending, finely farinose when young. | ||||||||
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. |
mostly alternate; petiole 0.5–2.5 cm, becoming shorter or subsessile in distal ones; blade deltoid to rhombic-ovate or lanceolate, (10–)15–50(–70) × 8–40 mm, base rounded, truncate, or broadly cuneate, margin irregularly sinuate-dentate or repand-dentate to entire, sometimes subhastate, apex obtuse to acute; distal blades often narrower and sometimes entire except for basal lobes. |
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Flowers | of both sexes in small axillary glomerules, 5-merous. |
in dense or interrupted, naked, simple or paniculate spikes mainly 5–8 mm thick, staminate ones 4-merous. |
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Seeds | light brown to amber, 1–1.5 mm. |
dark brown or black, 0.8–1.5 mm; radicle inferior. |
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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 densely packed on rachis, sessile, ovate-oblong or rounded-deltoid, (2–)2.5–3(–4.5) mm, united only at rounded or truncate base, angled and cristate on faces, thin or spongy-thickened. |
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2n | = 36. |
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Atriplex coronata |
Atriplex joaquiniana |
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Phenology | Flowering summer. | |||||||||
Habitat | Alkali sink scrub or alkaline grasslands | |||||||||
Elevation | 0-200(-300) m (0-700(-1000) ft) | |||||||||
Distribution |
CA
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CA |
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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.) |
Atriplex joaquiniana commonly occurs with Distichlis spicata, Allenrolfea occidentalis, Suaeda moquinii, Frankenia salina, Hordeum depressum, Spergularia macrotheca, and various annual species. H. M. Hall and F. E. Clements (1923) placed the relationship of this very distinctive California endemic with the Atriplex patula complex, with which one can make out a distant affinity. It differs from all other members previously treated within that complex in the small, more or less quadrangular fruiting bracteoles, which are typically crested on one or both elevated faces and have entire or less commonly dentate margins. The bracteoles are borne in very compact simple or paniculate spikes. (Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.) |
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Key |
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Source | FNA vol. 4. | FNA vol. 4, p. 335. | ||||||||
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 | A. spicata, A. patula subsp. spicata, A. spicata var. lagunita | ||||||||
Name authority | S. Watson: Proc. Amer. Acad. Arts 9: 114. (1874) | A. Nelson: Proc. Biol. Soc. Wash. 17: 99. (1904) | ||||||||
Web links |