Atriplex coulteri |
Atriplex sect. Obione |
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Coulter's orach, Coulter's orache, Coulter's saltbush |
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Habit | Herbs, perennial, sometimes flowering as an annual, spreading 0.7–10 dm, slightly woody at base. | Plants usually annual, usually monoecious. |
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. |
with Kranz anatomy. |
Staminate flowers | in glomerules in distal axils and short terminal spikes. |
with calyx lobes not crested. |
Pistillate flowers | in small axillary clusters. |
lacking or rarely with a perianth (in A. covillei), enclosed by a pair of bracteoles. |
Seeds | brown, 1.3–1.5 mm. |
radicle lateral or superior. |
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. |
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Bracteoles | cuneate to ovate or obovate, united at least to 1/2 of length, faces with tubercles or crests or smooth. |
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Atriplex coulteri |
Atriplex sect. Obione |
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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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United States; Mexico |
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.) |
Species 28 (23 in the flora). (Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.) |
Source | FNA vol. 4, p. 363. | FNA vol. 4, p. 346. |
Parent taxa | Chenopodiaceae > Atriplex > subg. Obione > sect. Obione > subsect. Arenariae | Chenopodiaceae > Atriplex > subg. Obione |
Sibling taxa | ||
Subordinate taxa | ||
Synonyms | Obione coulteri | |
Name authority | (Moquin-Tandon) D. Dietrich: Syn. Pl. 5: 537. (1852) | unknown |
Web links |