Atriplex glabriuscula
Atriplex glabriuscula var. acadiensis
bract orache, glabrous orach, scotland orache
Acadian orach, maritime saltbush
green and striped, often blue-green when fresh, weakly ridged, sparsely scurfy to glabrous.
often red striped, weakly angular.
petiole 0.2–2.5(–3.5) cm;
blade all entire or some or all triangular or lance-hastate with lobes spreading to antrorse, 5–100 × 3–80 mm, base abruptly to narrowly cuneate, entire or irregularly toothed.
petiole 2–15(–25) mm;
blade triangular- or lance-hastate, 5–70(–80) × 3–50 mm, ± lobed or dentate to entire, distal ones lanceolate and entire but with short hastate lobes.
in loose glomerules, arranged in foliose, interrupted spikes or axillary, terminating stems and branches.
in interrupted spicate inflorescences, terminal on main stem and branches, and axillary glomerules loose and widely spaced, with linear or lance-linear bracts.
dimorphic: brown, 2.5–4 mm wide (often the only ones present), or black, (1.2–)1.5–2.9(–3) mm wide;
radicle median, ± antrorse, of brown seed basal and spreading.
dimorphic: brown, round, 2.5–3.5(–4) mm wide, with radicle basal to subbasal and divaricate most abundant, or black, round, 2–3 mm, with radicle basal and divaricate.
green, becoming black or reddish to yellow brown, sessile or some short stipitate, venation obscure, ovate-triangular to rhombic-triangular, 5–13 mm, margin united almost to middle, with few irregular teeth or entire, apex abruptly acuminate, faces irregularly muricate, tuberculate, or smooth, inflated, spongy inner layer strongly developed at bracteole base.
becoming yellow brown in age, sessile or the axillary bracteoles with a stipe 2–5+ mm, ovate-triangular to ovate, 5–7 mm, margin with lateral angles not clearly produced, entire or with a single tooth, apex acuminate, faces smooth, sparsely scurfy, rarely with 2 thin, weak tubercles.
= 18, 36.
= 36.
Atriplex glabriuscula
Atriplex glabriuscula var. acadiensis
Varieties 3 (3 in the flora).
Members of the Atriplex glabriuscula complex occupy saline or brackish marshes and saline coastal strands mainly in the eastern maritime provinces of Canada, with extensions in similar habitats into the northeastern United States. They are seldom, if ever, ruderal weeds and appear to be indigenous or perhaps early introduced in some part from similar European habitats. The constituent taxa have been regarded at specific level (P. M. Taschereau 1972; I. J. Bassett et al. 1983). They are, however, alike in all major morphologic features, and are apparently closely allied. For those who wish to treat them at specific level, the names are supplied in the synonymy.
(Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.)
Historically, Atriplex glabriuscula var. acadiensis has been thought to be closely allied to the ruderal weed, Atriplex patula (with which it is often sympatric, and with which it was synonymized by H. A. Gleason and A. Cronquist 1991). Atriplex glabriuscula var. acadiensis differs from A. patula in being shorter and stockier and having ovate-triangular bracteoles jointed only at the base (not rhombic-triangular with margins united almost to the middle). The taxon, like A. glabriuscula in the broad sense, appears to be confined mainly to native habitats on sea beaches, and apparently is not, or seldom, a ruderal weed as is the case with A. patula. It grows occasionally with the indigenous A. dioica, which has elliptic not round seeds.
Plants examined from New Brunswick typically have at least half of the nodes opposite and opposite branches of unequal size. The plants seem to be closely allied to, and perhaps not always separable from, the largely sympatric Atriplex glabriuscula. I. J. Bassett et al. (1983) indicated that A. acadiensis formed spontaneous hybrids with A. glabriuscula in the Botanic Garden at Manchester England, noting further that these “presumably sterile triploid hybrids exhibited marked heterosis.”
(Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.)
1. Bracteoles thin throughout; black seeds 2.0-2.9 mm; bracteoles entire or with tooth on each margin, ovate-triangular | var. acadiensis |
1. Bracteoles often if not always spongy-thickened at the base; black seeds rare or lacking, or of various size; bracteoles variously toothed | → 2 |
2. Bracteoles sessile or nearly so; inflorescence with leafy bracts throughout; black seeds rare (or lacking), 1.5-2.5 mm; United States and Canada | var. glabriuscula |
2. Bracteoles, at least some axillary ones, short stipitate; inflorescence with leafy bracts only near base; black seeds 1.2-2 mm; Canada | var. franktonii |
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