Atriplex coronata |
Atriplex torreyi |
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crownscale, wedgescale |
Torrey saltbush, Torrey's quailbush, Torrey's 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, forming broad clumps, mostly (8–)1.2–20(–30) dm; branchlets striately and often sharply angled, glabrous or sparingly puberulent, often becoming bluntly spiny. | ||||||||||||
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. |
persistent, alternate; petiole 1–4 mm; blade grayish or greenish, ovate to deltate, rhombic, oval, or lanceolate, typically subhastate, (5–)12–32 × 4–16(–20) mm, base truncate to obtuse, margin entire (rarely toothed), apex obtuse and apiculate. |
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Flowers | of both sexes in small axillary glomerules, 5-merous. |
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Staminate flowers | yellow, in clusters 1 mm wide, borne in panicles mainly 10–30 cm. |
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Pistillate flowers | in once-branched panicles. |
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Seeds | light brown to amber, 1–1.5 mm. |
brown, 1–1.9 mm wide. |
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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, orbiculate, greatly compressed, 1.3–4 mm, about as wide, margin crenate, apex rounded. |
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2n | = 36. |
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Atriplex coronata |
Atriplex torreyi |
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Distribution |
CA
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AZ; CA; NV; UT
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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.) |
Varieties 2 (2 in the flora). (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. 378. | ||||||||||||
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 | Obione torreyi, A. lentiformis subsp. torreyi, A. lentiformis var. torreyi | ||||||||||||
Name authority | S. Watson: Proc. Amer. Acad. Arts 9: 114. (1874) | (S. Watson) S. Watson: Proc. Amer. Acad. Arts 9: 119. (1874) | ||||||||||||
Web links |