Atriplex coulteri
Atriplex garrettii
Coulter's orach, Coulter's orache, Coulter's saltbush
Garrett's saltbush
frequently tinged with red, much branched, sparsely scurfy.
many, sessile or short petiolate;
blade obovate, oblong, oblanceolate, or elliptic, (5–)7–20 × 1–3(–5) mm, base cuneate, margin entire, apex acute.
opposite or subopposite proximally, or some alternate distally;
petiole 2–6 mm;
blade yellow green, ovate to obovate, elliptic, or orbiculate, 8–55 × 6–32 mm, base obtuse to cuneate, margin entire or repand-dentate, apex rounded to acute, sparingly scurfy.
in glomerules in distal axils and short terminal spikes.
brown to tan or yellow, in clusters 2–4 mm wide, on panicles 2–10(–15) cm.
in small axillary clusters.
in spikes or spicate panicles 4–30 cm.
brown, 1.3–1.5 mm.
brown, 2 mm wide.
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 on stipes to 7 mm, body 4-winged, 6–10 mm and wide, toothed apically, surface smooth, reticulate, or with flattened processes, wings 3–4 mm wide.
= 18.
Atriplex coulteri
Atriplex garrettii
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. Plants mainly 2-6 dm; leaves 9 or fewer on first flowering branch of current growth; bract wings denticulate; staminate flowers commonly brown; talus slopes in canyons of the Colorado River, se Utah | var. garrettii |
1. Plants mainly 5-10 dm; leaves 7 or more on first flowering branch of current growth; bract wings deeply denticulate; staminate flowers yellow; vicinity of Navajo Bridge and Lee’s Ferry, Arizona | var. navajoensis |
CA
WildflowerSearch
iNaturalist
USDA Plants Database
