Atriplex coulteri |
Atriplex leucophylla |
|
---|---|---|
Coulter's orach, Coulter's orache, Coulter's saltbush |
beach saltbush, sea scale, whiteleaf orach |
|
Habit | Herbs, perennial, sometimes flowering as an annual, spreading 0.7–10 dm, slightly woody at base. | Herbs, prostrate (decumbent or procumbent), many branched, 1.5–6 dm, somewhat woody below, coarse, white scurfy. |
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. |
many, sometimes crowded; blade orbiculate to ovate or ovate-lanceolate to elliptic or oblong, 8–40 × 4–18 mm, base obtuse or rounded, white scurfy. |
Staminate flowers | in glomerules in distal axils and short terminal spikes. |
in dense terminal spikes. |
Pistillate flowers | in small axillary clusters. |
in few-flowered, axillary clusters. |
Seeds | brown, 1.3–1.5 mm. |
dark red-brown, 2.5–3 mm. |
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 not compressed, 5–7 mm, faces usually with wartlike projections, scurfy. |
Atriplex coulteri |
Atriplex leucophylla |
|
Phenology | Flowering spring–fall. | Flowering spring–fall. |
Habitat | Somewhat alkaline or clay low places, valley grasslands, coastal sage scrub, coastal slopes | Sea beaches, along coasts, at higher elevation inland |
Elevation | 0-500 m (0-1600 ft) | 0-30 m (0-100 ft) |
Distribution |
CA
|
CA; Mexico (Baja California)
|
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 leucophylla occurs with Potentilla, Camissonia, Ambrosia, Cakile, and Calystegia. (Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.) |
Source | FNA vol. 4, p. 363. | FNA vol. 4, p. 366. |
Parent taxa | Chenopodiaceae > Atriplex > subg. Obione > sect. Obione > subsect. Arenariae | Chenopodiaceae > Atriplex > subg. Obione > sect. Obione > subsect. Leucophyllae |
Sibling taxa | ||
Synonyms | Obione coulteri | Obione leucophylla |
Name authority | (Moquin-Tandon) D. Dietrich: Syn. Pl. 5: 537. (1852) | (Moquin-Tandon) D. Dietrich: Syn. Pl. 5: 536. (1852) |
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