The green links below add additional plants to the comparison table. Blue links lead to other Web sites.
enable glossary links

Coulter's orach, Coulter's orache, Coulter's saltbush

Gmelin's orach, Gmelin's orache, Gmelin's saltbush

Habit Herbs, perennial, sometimes flowering as an annual, spreading 0.7–10 dm, slightly woody at base. Herbs, monoecious, erect or ascending, branched from base or rarely simple, 0.5–8(–100) dm; proximal branches mostly elongated and often prostrate.
Stems

frequently tinged with red, much branched, sparsely scurfy.

Leaves

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 the proximal-most;

petiole 0.5–1.5(–2) cm;

blade green on both sides, ovate to oblong or lanceolate to oblong, deltoid-oblong, or linear, 9–100 × 1–50 mm, base mostly rounded to tapering or more rarely broadly cuneate from a hastate base, margin entire or repand denticulate, apex acute or acuminate or more rarely obtuse, glabrous or nearly so.

Flowers

glomerate in rather loose, spiciform inflorescences, and in axillary clusters; staminate ones 4–5-merous.

Staminate flowers

in glomerules in distal axils and short terminal spikes.

Pistillate flowers

in small axillary clusters.

Seeds

brown, 1.3–1.5 mm.

dimorphic: some small, black (lacking? in var. alaskensis), convex, 1.5–2 mm wide, lustrous, others pale brown, flat, 1.5–3.5 mm wide;

radicle inferior or subascending.

Fruiting

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 darkening at maturity, sessile or stipitate, ovate or oblong to orbiculate, longest ones strap-shaped or ovate-lanceolate, mainly 4–10 mm, distinct nearly to base, margin entire or with (1 or) 2 or more teeth, apex acuminate to acute, often bulging on both sides of the impressed midnerve, at first mealy, finally glabrate.

2n

= 54.

Atriplex coulteri

Atriplex gmelinii

Phenology Flowering spring–fall.
Habitat Somewhat alkaline or clay low places, valley grasslands, coastal sage scrub, coastal slopes
Elevation 0-500 m (0-1600 ft)
Distribution
from FNA
CA
[WildflowerSearch map]
[BONAP county map]
from FNA
AK; CA; WA; BC; NT
[WildflowerSearch map]
[BONAP county map]
Discussion

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.)

Key
1. Brown seeds 1.7-3 mm wide; fruiting bracteoles mostly less than 10 mm; leaf blades mainly oblong to lance-oblong or linear, less commonly hastate-lanceolate
var. gmelinii
1. Brown seeds 2.8-3.5 mm wide; fruiting bracteoles often more than 10 mm; leaf blades oblong to lanceolate or hastate-lanceolate or -ovate
var. alaskensis
Source FNA vol. 4, p. 363. FNA vol. 4, p. 333.
Parent taxa Chenopodiaceae > Atriplex > subg. Obione > sect. Obione > subsect. Arenariae Chenopodiaceae > Atriplex > subg. Atriplex > sect. Teutliopsis
Sibling taxa
A. acanthocarpa, A. amnicola, A. argentea, A. californica, A. canescens, A. confertifolia, A. cordulata, A. coronata, A. corrugata, A. covillei, A. dioica, A. elegans, A. fruticulosa, A. gardneri, A. garrettii, A. glabriuscula, A. gmelinii, A. graciliflora, A. heterosperma, A. holocarpa, A. hortensis, A. hymenelytra, A. joaquiniana, A. klebergorum, A. laciniata, A. lentiformis, A. leucophylla, A. lindleyi, A. linearis, A. littoralis, A. matamorensis, A. mucronata, A. nudicaulis, A. nummularia, A. oblongifolia, A. obovata, A. pacifica, A. parishii, A. parryi, A. patula, A. pentandra, A. phyllostegia, A. pleiantha, A. polycarpa, A. powellii, A. prostrata, A. pusilla, A. rosea, A. saccaria, A. semibaccata, A. serenana, A. spinifera, A. suberecta, A. suckleyi, A. tatarica, A. torreyi, A. truncata, A. tularensis, A. watsonii, A. wolfii, A. wrightii
A. acanthocarpa, A. amnicola, A. argentea, A. californica, A. canescens, A. confertifolia, A. cordulata, A. coronata, A. corrugata, A. coulteri, A. covillei, A. dioica, A. elegans, A. fruticulosa, A. gardneri, A. garrettii, A. glabriuscula, A. graciliflora, A. heterosperma, A. holocarpa, A. hortensis, A. hymenelytra, A. joaquiniana, A. klebergorum, A. laciniata, A. lentiformis, A. leucophylla, A. lindleyi, A. linearis, A. littoralis, A. matamorensis, A. mucronata, A. nudicaulis, A. nummularia, A. oblongifolia, A. obovata, A. pacifica, A. parishii, A. parryi, A. patula, A. pentandra, A. phyllostegia, A. pleiantha, A. polycarpa, A. powellii, A. prostrata, A. pusilla, A. rosea, A. saccaria, A. semibaccata, A. serenana, A. spinifera, A. suberecta, A. suckleyi, A. tatarica, A. torreyi, A. truncata, A. tularensis, A. watsonii, A. wolfii, A. wrightii
Subordinate taxa
A. gmelinii var. alaskensis, A. gmelinii var. gmelinii
Synonyms Obione coulteri
Name authority (Moquin-Tandon) D. Dietrich: Syn. Pl. 5: 537. (1852) C. A. Meyer ex Bongard: Mém. Acad. Imp. Sci. St. Pétersbourg, Sér. 6, Sci. Math. 2: 160. (1838)
Web links