Atriplex gardneri |
Atriplex cordulata |
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Gardner's orache, Gardner's sagebrush, Gardner's saltbrush, Gardner's saltbush, Nuttall's saltbush |
heart-leaf orach, heartscale |
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Habit | Shrubs or subshrubs, dioecious or monoecious, 1–10 dm, unarmed. | Herbs, erect, simple, oppositely or alternately branched from base and sparingly so distally, rigid, scurfy, 1–5 dm. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Stems | prostrate to ascending, or less commonly erect. |
slender to rather coarse, initially erect-ascending, finally spreading-ascending, scurfy when young. |
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Leaves | ± persistent, alternate or opposite to subopposite (especially proximally), sessile to petiolate; blade linear to oblanceolate, obovate, spatulate, or orbiculate, 5–55 × 2–25 mm, base cuneate, margin entire (rarely dentate), apex retuse to obtuse or rounded. |
alternate except proximalmost ones, blade ovate to cordate-ovate, 5–15(–20) × 3–10(–13) mm; base mostly cordate (to rounded), margin entire or denticulate, apex acute to attenuate, thickish and scurfy-tomentose. |
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Flowers | of both sexes mixed in small axillary clusters. |
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Staminate flowers | yellow or brown, in numerous clusters 2–4 mm wide, in spikes or panicles 2–30 cm. |
in glomerules in distal axils, 4–5-merous. |
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Pistillate flowers | in spikes or panicles to 30 cm. |
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Seeds | tan or brown, 1.5–2.5 mm wide. |
deep red-brown, 1.5–1.8 mm. |
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Fruiting | bracteoles 2–9 × 2–9 mm, bearing tubercles or wings or tubercles aligned in 4 rows or rarely smooth, apex toothed and usually with 2 or more lateral teeth. |
bracteoles sessile or subsessile, round-ovate (semi-orbiculate) to deltoid-rhombic or flabellate, slightly compressed, 3–5 mm and as broad, united to middle, deeply toothed, margin with acute teeth, terminal tooth subequal to others or largest, thin and soft at margin, hard at center, scarcely though sometimes tuberculate on faces. |
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2n | = 36, 54. |
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Atriplex gardneri |
Atriplex cordulata |
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Distribution |
AZ; CA; CO; ID; MT; ND; NE; NM; NV; OR; SD; UT; WA; WY; AB; MB; SK; Mexico
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CA
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Discussion | Varieties 7 (7 in the flora). This is a widely distributed complex of intergrading genotypes of great phenotypic plasticity. The members occur commonly in fine-textured saline substrates in much of the western Great Plains and in the Intermountain Region. Diploids, triploids, tetraploids, and hexaploids (and higher polyploids, all multiples of the base number 9) are known within the complex, and hybrids are known not only between the constituents but with the other woody species which they contact, i.e., Atriplex canescens, A. confertifolia, and A. corrugata. Indeed, a case can be made for treating both A. gardneri and A. canescens within an expanded A. canescens. They are regarded here as forming two intergrading complexes, with some of the constituent varieties placed equally well within either of the species aggregations. The treatment essentially follows the alignment of taxa suggested by C. A. Hanson (1962), with the exception that they are reduced to varietal status and var. bonnevillensis and var. aptera are placed within the A. gardneri phase and not with A. canescens. (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. | FNA vol. 4, p. 358. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Parent taxa | Chenopodiaceae > Atriplex > subg. Pterochiton | Chenopodiaceae > Atriplex > subg. Obione > sect. Obione > subsect. Pusillae | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Sibling taxa | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Subordinate taxa | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Synonyms | Obione gardneri, A. nuttallii subsp. gardneri, A. nuttallii var. gardneri | Obione cordulata | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Name authority | (Moquin-Tandon) D. Dietrich: Syn. Pl. 5: 537. (1852) | Jepson: Pittonia 2: 304. (1892) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Web links |
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