Atriplex covillei |
Atriplex hortensis |
|
---|---|---|
Coville's orach |
French spinach, garden orach, garden orache, orache |
|
Habit | Herbs, spreading, 1–4(–5) dm and as broad. | Herbs, green to yellowish or reddish, 5–15(–25) dm, glabrous. |
Stems | terete, sparsely scurfy when young. |
erect, mostly branched. |
Leaves | petiole to 1/2 as long as blade (becoming subsessile distally); blade green or finally stramineous, (10–)20–50 × 6–30 mm, firm, base abruptly acute to narrowly cuneate, apex acute to attenuate, sparsely scurfy. |
mostly opposite or mostly alternate; petiole 0.3–4+ cm; blade green on both sides, ovate or ovate-lanceolate to cordate-hastate at base, 15–180 × 8–135 mm, margin entire or more rarely irregularly toothed or lobed, apex attenuate to acuminate or rounded. |
Inflorescences | of spikes disposed in leafless panicles. |
|
Staminate flowers | in sessile glomerules in distal axils, often mixed with pistillate ones, staminate calyx deeply 5-cleft; lobes obtuse, not appendaged. |
5-merous. |
Pistillate flowers | with calyx of (1–)3(–5) hyaline sepals. |
dimorphic, some ebracteolate and with 5-parted perianth, others without perianth enclosed by a pair of sessile or very shortly stipitate bracteoles. |
Seeds | dark reddish brown, 1–1.5 mm. |
of ebracteate flowers black, horizontal, convex, 1–2 mm wide, lustrous; those of bracteolate flowers olivaceous brown, vertical, flat, 3–4.5 mm wide, dull. |
Fruiting | bracteoles sessile or stipitate, 6–12 × 4–7 mm, margin mostly 3-lobed, with elongate terminal lobe triangular to lanceolate, 2 short rounded lobes at base or sides merely rounded at base, united to beyond middle. |
bracteoles samaralike, orbicular to oval or ovate, compressed, 5–18 mm, united only at base, entire, faces smooth. |
2n | = 18. |
|
Atriplex covillei |
Atriplex hortensis |
|
Phenology | Flowering summer–fall. | Flowering summer–fall. |
Habitat | Mixed saltbush-greasewood, rabbitbrush, warm desert shrub, and salt grass communities in saline substrates | Roadsides, canal and stream banks, lake shores, disturbed sites and gardens |
Elevation | 800-1700 m (2600-5600 ft) | 0-2200 m (0-7200 ft) |
Distribution |
CA; NV; OR |
AK; CA; CO; CT; IA; ID; IL; IN; MA; MN; MT; ND; NE; NJ; NV; NY; OR; SD; UT; WA; WI; WY; AB; BC; MB; ON; QC; SK; YT; Asia [Introduced in North America]
|
Discussion | Endolepis covillei was treated within the synonymy of Atriplex phyllostegia (Torrey) S. Watson by H. M. Hall and F. E. Clements (1923). H. C. Stutz et al. (1993) placed Atriplex covillei within Endolepis, based in large part on the presence of a perianth subtending the pistil within the fruiting bracteoles and on the lack of Kranz anatomy in the leaves. The pattern of venation is, nevertheless, very similar to that in species with Kranz anatomy. The presence of perianth scales in the pistillate flowers of A. covillei has been regarded as evidence of relationship with A. suckleyi. Despite placement of these taxa within Endolepis by Stutz et al. Atriplex covillei is possibly more closely allied to the morphologically similar and partially sympatric A. phyllostegia than it is to strongly dissimilar and the distantly disjunct A. suckleyi. Stutz and his associates placed great emphasis on the presence of reduced perianth segments subtending the pistil within the fruiting bracteoles of A. covillei. Calyces per se, otherwise known only in A. suckleyi and A. pleiantha, probably have arisen independently. Their presence does not necessarily indicate a close relationship. Stutz et al. pointed to other differences aside from the calyx of the pistillate flowers, and it is apparent that the two entities can stand as distinct species. To segregate A. covillei within a separate genus and to ally it with a species to which its relationships are obscure at best, stretches logic beyond reason. (Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.) |
Atriplex hortensis has been widely grown as a potherb, has escaped from cultivation, and is now established especially in moist ruderal sites. It is easily distinguished by its rounded, samaralike, entire, and smooth fruiting bracteoles, and the presence of two kinds of pistillate flowers, the one enclosed by bracteoles and lacking sepals, the other without bracteoles but subtended by sepals. Atriplex nitens (see list of excluded taxa) is distinguished from A. hortensis in Flora Europea (P. Aellen 1964b) by having leaf blades densely white scurfy beneath, the distal surface lustrous, as opposed to green and dull for A. hortensis. Occasional specimens, treated here as A. hortensis, have leaves somewhat scurfy. (Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.) |
Source | FNA vol. 4. | FNA vol. 4, p. 332. |
Parent taxa | Chenopodiaceae > Atriplex > subg. Obione > sect. Covilleiae | Chenopodiaceae > Atriplex > subg. Atriplex > sect. Atriplex |
Sibling taxa | ||
Synonyms | Endolepis covillei | A. nitens |
Name authority | (Standley) J. F. Macbride: Contr. Gray Herb. 53: 11. (1918) | Linnaeus: Sp. Pl. 2: 1053. (1753) |
Web links |
|
|