Atriplex coulteri
Atriplex powellii
Coulter's orach, Coulter's orache, Coulter's saltbush
Powell's orach, Powell's orache, Powell's saltbush, Powell's saltweed
frequently tinged with red, much branched, sparsely scurfy.
slender to stout, mainly 1–5(–7) dm, branching almost throughout;
herbage pubescent with scurfy and arachnoid hairs.
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, proximalmost on petioles (3–)5–30 mm, becoming subsessile or short petiolate distally;
blade 3-veined, ovate to rhombic or orbiculate to elliptic, 0.4–5 × 0.2–3 cm, base rounded to cuneate, margin entire, apex acute to obtuse.
in glomerules in distal axils and short terminal spikes.
with calyx 4–5-lobed.
in small axillary clusters.
brown, 1.3–1.5 mm.
greenish, yellowish, or brown, 0.9–2 mm;
radicle superior.
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 sessile, ovate to oblong or broadly cuneate or pan-duriform, 1.5–5.5 × 1.5–5 mm, thick, united to apex, apex truncate to cuspidate or tridentate, surfaces with thickened processes or rarely smooth.
= 18.
Atriplex coulteri
Atriplex powellii
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.)
1. Leaves mostly conspicuously 3-veined, proximalmost with petioles 0.5-2.5(-3.5) cm, distalmost bracteate leaves typically short petiolate; fruiting bracteoles easily discerned at bract bases; plants mostly dioecious; from Alberta and Saskatchewan s to Utah and New Mexico | var. powellii |
1. Leaves inconspicuously, if at all, 3-veined, proximalmost with petioles 0.5-1.5(-2) cm, distalmost bracteate leaves typically sessile; fruiting bracteoles apparent only by removing the subtending bract; plants evidently monoecious; local distribution in se Utah. | var. minuticarpa |
CA
WildflowerSearch
iNaturalist
USDA Plants Database
OR
Flora NW
PNW Herbaria
