Atriplex coronata |
Atriplex linearis |
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crownscale, wedgescale |
slenderleaf saltbush, thinleaf fourwing saltbush |
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Habit | Herbs, erect or decumbent, 0.5–6 dm; branches terete, fructiferous almost to base, scurfy when young. | Shrubs dioecious, erect, mainly 10–25 dm; branchlets slender, terete. | ||||||||
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. |
sessile; blade narrowly linear-elliptic, 10–50 × 2–3 mm, firm, revolute, often acute apically. |
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Flowers | of both sexes in small axillary glomerules, 5-merous. |
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Staminate flowers | in glomerules borne in slender interrupted mostly paniculate spikes. |
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Pistillate flowers | paniculate or in few-flowered axillary glomerules. |
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Seeds | light brown to amber, 1–1.5 mm. |
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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 sessile or subsessile, lanceolate to ovate, 4–6 mm, about as wide, each bract with a pair of thin wings 3 mm broad or less, irregularly dentate or laciniate, free tips of bracts much exceeding the wings. |
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2n | = 36. |
= 18. |
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Atriplex coronata |
Atriplex linearis |
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Phenology | Flowering spring–fall. | |||||||||
Habitat | Saline deserts, with shadscale, Canotia, Yucca, Opuntia, Rhus, and Eriogonum | |||||||||
Elevation | 0-800 m (0-2600 ft) | |||||||||
Distribution |
CA
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AZ; CA; nw Mexico (Baja California, Sonora)
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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.) |
Specimens of Atriplex canescens var. macilenta resemble A. linearis. The taxa have been placed together by some previous workers. Nevertheless, the stems of A. linearis are consistently more slender, the leaves proportionally narrower, and the bracts, though smaller, more closely simulate those of A. canescens. Its diploid nature signals a different evolutionary pathway than that for most of A. canescens, considered broadly. Narrow leaves occur within A. canescens, in the broad sense, sometimes with geographic correlation, sometimes not. (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. 381. | ||||||||
Parent taxa | Chenopodiaceae > Atriplex > subg. Obione > sect. Obione > subsect. Pusillae | Chenopodiaceae > Atriplex > subg. Pterochiton | ||||||||
Sibling taxa | ||||||||||
Subordinate taxa | ||||||||||
Synonyms | A. elegans var. coronata, Obione coronata | A. canescens subsp. linearis, A. canescens var. linearis | ||||||||
Name authority | S. Watson: Proc. Amer. Acad. Arts 9: 114. (1874) | S. Watson: Proc. Amer. Acad. Arts 24: 72. (1889) | ||||||||
Web links |