Atriplex coulteri |
Atriplex wolfii |
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Coulter's orach, Coulter's orache, Coulter's saltbush |
slender orach, Wolf's saltweed |
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Habit | Herbs, perennial, sometimes flowering as an annual, spreading 0.7–10 dm, slightly woody at base. | Herbs, slender, delicate. | ||||
Stems | frequently tinged with red, much branched, sparsely scurfy. |
simple or more commonly branched throughout, mainly 0.7–3.5 dm, branches terete; herbage 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. |
blade concolorous, linear to narrowly lanceolate, mainly 4–25 × 1–3 mm. |
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Flowers | very small, both sexes in the same sessile, axillary clusters. |
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Staminate flowers | in glomerules in distal axils and short terminal spikes. |
sepals 5. |
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Pistillate flowers | in small axillary clusters. |
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Seeds | brown, 1.3–1.5 mm. |
brown, 1–2 mm. |
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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, ovate to cuneate in outline, 1.5–2.7 × 1.1–2.1 mm, apex truncate to attenuate, faces smooth or tuberculate. |
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Atriplex coulteri |
Atriplex wolfii |
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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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CO; UT; WY |
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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. 355. | ||||
Parent taxa | Chenopodiaceae > Atriplex > subg. Obione > sect. Obione > subsect. Arenariae | Chenopodiaceae > Atriplex > subg. Obione > sect. Obione > subsect. Wolfianae | ||||
Sibling taxa | ||||||
Subordinate taxa | ||||||
Synonyms | Obione coulteri | Obione wolfii | ||||
Name authority | (Moquin-Tandon) D. Dietrich: Syn. Pl. 5: 537. (1852) | S. Watson: Proc. Amer. Acad. Arts 9: 112. (1874) | ||||
Web links |