Atriplex coronata |
Atriplex spinifera |
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crownscale, wedgescale |
spinescale saltbush, spiny 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, intricately much branched, mainly 3–15 dm; branchlets terete, becoming rigid and spinose. | ||||||||
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. |
short petiolate to sessile; blade ovate-deltate to elliptic or spatulate, (5–)10–27 mm, entire or subhastate. |
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Flowers | of both sexes in small axillary glomerules, 5-merous. |
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Staminate flowers | borne in small axillary glomerules. |
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Pistillate flowers | borne solitary or few in bract axils on short, spinose, lateral branchlets of a paniculate inflorescence. |
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Seeds | light brown to amber, 1–1.5 mm. |
reddish brown, 2–2.8 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 nearly so, body globose, connate, constricted below oblong to orbicular wings, 7–15 ×3.5–10 mm, entire or obscurely dentate, faces smooth to sparingly cristate. |
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2n | = 36. |
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Atriplex coronata |
Atriplex spinifera |
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Phenology | Flowering summer–fall. | |||||||||
Habitat | Xeric saline substrates, with mixed salt desert shrubs | |||||||||
Elevation | 30-1300 m (100-4300 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.) |
Spiny saltbush apparently forms occasional hybrids with phases of Atriplex canescens, as indicated by the presence of wings on some of the fruiting bracteoles. (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. 377. | ||||||||
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 | |||||||||
Name authority | S. Watson: Proc. Amer. Acad. Arts 9: 114. (1874) | J. F. Macbride: Contr. Gray Herb. 53: 11. (1918) | ||||||||
Web links |