Atriplex coulteri |
Atriplex torreyi |
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Coulter's orach, Coulter's orache, Coulter's saltbush |
Torrey saltbush, Torrey's quailbush, Torrey's saltbush |
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Habit | Herbs, perennial, sometimes flowering as an annual, spreading 0.7–10 dm, slightly woody at base. | Shrubs, dioecious, forming broad clumps, mostly (8–)1.2–20(–30) dm; branchlets striately and often sharply angled, glabrous or sparingly puberulent, often becoming bluntly spiny. | ||||
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. |
persistent, alternate; petiole 1–4 mm; blade grayish or greenish, ovate to deltate, rhombic, oval, or lanceolate, typically subhastate, (5–)12–32 × 4–16(–20) mm, base truncate to obtuse, margin entire (rarely toothed), apex obtuse and apiculate. |
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Staminate flowers | in glomerules in distal axils and short terminal spikes. |
yellow, in clusters 1 mm wide, borne in panicles mainly 10–30 cm. |
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Pistillate flowers | in small axillary clusters. |
in once-branched panicles. |
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Seeds | brown, 1.3–1.5 mm. |
brown, 1–1.9 mm wide. |
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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 sessile, orbiculate, greatly compressed, 1.3–4 mm, about as wide, margin crenate, apex rounded. |
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Atriplex coulteri |
Atriplex torreyi |
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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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AZ; CA; NV; UT
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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.) |
Varieties 2 (2 in the flora). (Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.) |
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Key |
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Source | FNA vol. 4, p. 363. | FNA vol. 4, p. 378. | ||||
Parent taxa | Chenopodiaceae > Atriplex > subg. Obione > sect. Obione > subsect. Arenariae | Chenopodiaceae > Atriplex > subg. Pterochiton | ||||
Sibling taxa | ||||||
Subordinate taxa | ||||||
Synonyms | Obione coulteri | Obione torreyi, A. lentiformis subsp. torreyi, A. lentiformis var. torreyi | ||||
Name authority | (Moquin-Tandon) D. Dietrich: Syn. Pl. 5: 537. (1852) | (S. Watson) S. Watson: Proc. Amer. Acad. Arts 9: 119. (1874) | ||||
Web links |