Atriplex coulteri |
Atriplex joaquiniana |
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Coulter's orach, Coulter's orache, Coulter's saltbush |
San Joaquin orach |
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Habit | Herbs, perennial, sometimes flowering as an annual, spreading 0.7–10 dm, slightly woody at base. | Herbs, monoecious or subdioecious, erect, sparsely branched, (1–)3–10 dm; branches obtusely angled, rather rigidly ascending, finely farinose when young. |
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. |
mostly alternate; petiole 0.5–2.5 cm, becoming shorter or subsessile in distal ones; blade deltoid to rhombic-ovate or lanceolate, (10–)15–50(–70) × 8–40 mm, base rounded, truncate, or broadly cuneate, margin irregularly sinuate-dentate or repand-dentate to entire, sometimes subhastate, apex obtuse to acute; distal blades often narrower and sometimes entire except for basal lobes. |
Flowers | in dense or interrupted, naked, simple or paniculate spikes mainly 5–8 mm thick, staminate ones 4-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. |
dark brown or black, 0.8–1.5 mm; radicle inferior. |
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 densely packed on rachis, sessile, ovate-oblong or rounded-deltoid, (2–)2.5–3(–4.5) mm, united only at rounded or truncate base, angled and cristate on faces, thin or spongy-thickened. |
Atriplex coulteri |
Atriplex joaquiniana |
|
Phenology | Flowering spring–fall. | Flowering summer. |
Habitat | Somewhat alkaline or clay low places, valley grasslands, coastal sage scrub, coastal slopes | Alkali sink scrub or alkaline grasslands |
Elevation | 0-500 m (0-1600 ft) | 0-200(-300) m (0-700(-1000) ft) |
Distribution |
CA
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CA |
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.) |
Atriplex joaquiniana commonly occurs with Distichlis spicata, Allenrolfea occidentalis, Suaeda moquinii, Frankenia salina, Hordeum depressum, Spergularia macrotheca, and various annual species. H. M. Hall and F. E. Clements (1923) placed the relationship of this very distinctive California endemic with the Atriplex patula complex, with which one can make out a distant affinity. It differs from all other members previously treated within that complex in the small, more or less quadrangular fruiting bracteoles, which are typically crested on one or both elevated faces and have entire or less commonly dentate margins. The bracteoles are borne in very compact simple or paniculate spikes. (Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.) |
Source | FNA vol. 4, p. 363. | FNA vol. 4, p. 335. |
Parent taxa | Chenopodiaceae > Atriplex > subg. Obione > sect. Obione > subsect. Arenariae | Chenopodiaceae > Atriplex > subg. Atriplex > sect. Teutliopsis |
Sibling taxa | ||
Synonyms | Obione coulteri | A. spicata, A. patula subsp. spicata, A. spicata var. lagunita |
Name authority | (Moquin-Tandon) D. Dietrich: Syn. Pl. 5: 537. (1852) | A. Nelson: Proc. Biol. Soc. Wash. 17: 99. (1904) |
Web links |