Atriplex coulteri |
Atriplex pleiantha |
|
---|---|---|
Coulter's orach, Coulter's orache, Coulter's saltbush |
four-corners orach |
|
Habit | Herbs, perennial, sometimes flowering as an annual, spreading 0.7–10 dm, slightly woody at base. | Herbs, branching from base, mainly 0.5–1.5 dm, glabrous or sparingly 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. |
alternate to subopposite, petiolate; blade ovate to suborbiculate, 5–18(–20) mm, about as wide, margin entire, apex obtuse to acute. |
Staminate flowers | in glomerules in distal axils and short terminal spikes. |
in short terminal spikes. |
Pistillate flowers | in small axillary clusters. |
|
Seeds | brown, 1.3–1.5 mm. |
falling at maturity, black, 1.5 mm, shining, smooth. |
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 short stipitate, compressed, 3–7 mm wide and about as long, entire; perianth consisting of 5 hyaline, sparsely ciliate scales 1–1.2 mm. |
Atriplex coulteri |
Atriplex pleiantha |
|
Phenology | Flowering spring–fall. | Flowering late summer–fall. |
Habitat | Somewhat alkaline or clay low places, valley grasslands, coastal sage scrub, coastal slopes | Salt-desert shrub community |
Elevation | 0-500 m (0-1600 ft) | 1400-1500 m (4600-4900 ft) |
Distribution |
CA
|
AZ; CO; NM; UT |
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.) |
|
Source | FNA vol. 4, p. 363. | FNA vol. 4, p. 345. |
Parent taxa | Chenopodiaceae > Atriplex > subg. Obione > sect. Obione > subsect. Arenariae | Chenopodiaceae > Atriplex > subg. Obione > sect. Pleianthae |
Sibling taxa | ||
Synonyms | Obione coulteri | Proatriplex pleiantha |
Name authority | (Moquin-Tandon) D. Dietrich: Syn. Pl. 5: 537. (1852) | W. A. Weber: Madroño 10: 189, figs. 1, 2. (1950) |
Web links |