Atriplex coulteri
Atriplex cordulata
Coulter's orach, Coulter's orache, Coulter's saltbush
heart-leaf orach, heartscale
frequently tinged with red, much branched, sparsely scurfy.
slender to rather coarse, initially erect-ascending, finally spreading-ascending, scurfy when young.
many, sessile or short petiolate;
blade obovate, oblong, oblanceolate, or elliptic, (5–)7–20 × 1–3(–5) mm, base cuneate, margin entire, apex acute.
alternate except proximalmost ones, blade ovate to cordate-ovate, 5–15(–20) × 3–10(–13) mm;
base mostly cordate (to rounded), margin entire or denticulate, apex acute to attenuate, thickish and scurfy-tomentose.
of both sexes mixed in small axillary clusters.
in glomerules in distal axils and short terminal spikes.
in glomerules in distal axils, 4–5-merous.
in small axillary clusters.
brown, 1.3–1.5 mm.
deep red-brown, 1.5–1.8 mm.
bracteoles sessile or subsessile, broadly obovate, 2–3 mm and as broad or about as broad, united 1/2 of length, margin free, deeply and sharply dentate, narrowed at summit, faces smooth or sometimes tuberculate.
bracteoles sessile or subsessile, round-ovate (semi-orbiculate) to deltoid-rhombic or flabellate, slightly compressed, 3–5 mm and as broad, united to middle, deeply toothed, margin with acute teeth, terminal tooth subequal to others or largest, thin and soft at margin, hard at center, scarcely though sometimes tuberculate on faces.
= 36, 54.
Atriplex coulteri
Atriplex cordulata
Of conservation concern.
Atriplex coulteri is closely allied to the geographically disjunct A. fruticulosa, from which it is said to differ in the compressed, small (2.5–3 mm) versus thickened and larger (3–5 mm) bracts. Specimens of A. fruticulosa, including the type, examined by me have bracteoles compressed-thickened, but hardly “globoid” as stated in the key to the species by H. M. Hall and F. E. Clements (1923). Additional specimens borrowed from California might clarify the situation; otherwise the two species are sufficiently close as to be treated as a single entity.
(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.)
1. Anthers red or purple; fruiting bracteoles 4-5 mm, central tooth largest; wc California | var. cordulata |
1. Anthers yellow; fruiting bracteoles 3-3.5 mm, central tooth subequal to lateral; Kern, Kings, and Tulare counties, California | var. erecticaulis |
CA
WildflowerSearch
iNaturalist
USDA Plants Database
