Atriplex coulteri |
Atriplex gmelinii |
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Coulter's orach, Coulter's orache, Coulter's saltbush |
Gmelin's orach, Gmelin's orache, Gmelin's saltbush |
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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. |
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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. |
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Flowers | glomerate in rather loose, spiciform inflorescences, and in axillary clusters; staminate ones 4–5-merous. |
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Staminate flowers | in glomerules in distal axils and short terminal spikes. |
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Pistillate flowers | in small axillary clusters. |
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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. |
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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. |
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2n | = 54. |
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Atriplex coulteri |
Atriplex gmelinii |
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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 |
CA
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AK; CA; WA; BC; NT
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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.) |
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Key |
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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 | ||||||
Subordinate taxa | ||||||
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) | ||||
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