Atriplex coulteri
Atriplex wrightii
Coulter's orach, Coulter's orache, Coulter's saltbush
Wright's orach, Wright's saltbush
frequently tinged with red, much branched, sparsely scurfy.
erect and ascending, sparsely branched or simple, obtusely angled, 1.5–10(–15) dm, stout, scurfy when young.
many, sessile or short petiolate;
blade obovate, oblong, oblanceolate, or elliptic, (5–)7–20 × 1–3(–5) mm, base cuneate, margin entire, apex acute.
sessile or short petiolate;
blade white abaxially, green adaxially, linear to lanceolate, elliptic, or oblong, 15–75 × (1–)3–25 mm, thin, base cuneate to long attenuate, margin coarsely sinuate-dentate or entire, apex rounded to acute, mucronate, densely scurfy and pale abaxially, green and glabrous adaxially.
in glomerules in distal axils and short terminal spikes.
in glomerules, forming slender, usually dense, naked terminal narrowly paniculate spikes, panicles 6–30 cm;
glomerules beadlike, small, 2–3 mm thick;
calyx 5-cleft.
in small axillary clusters.
in few-flowered axillary clusters.
brown, 1.3–1.5 mm.
pale brown, 1 mm.
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, cuneate-orbiculate or broadly cuneate, compressed, 2–2.5 mm, united basally, apex rounded, acutely 5-dentate, faces 3-veined, usually unappendaged, rarely obscurely tuberculate.
Atriplex coulteri
Atriplex wrightii
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.)
The name Obione elegans var. radiata was discussed by H. M. Hall and F. E. Clements (1923), who did not see the Thurber type material, but did see another cited specimen, Wright 571, from west Texas, which is referable to Atriplex elegans. The concept of A. radiata, according to Coulter, includes A. wrightii as a synonym; the description supplied by him is of that entity.
(Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.)
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