Atriplex glabriuscula
Atriplex glabriuscula var. franktonii
bract orache, glabrous orach, scotland orache
Frankton's orach, Frankton's saltbush
green and striped, often blue-green when fresh, weakly ridged, sparsely scurfy to glabrous.
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.
opposite proximally;
petiole (0–)0.5–2.5(–3) cm;
blade triangular-hastate (or hastate and triangular-acuminate) with pair of broad, spreading or antrorse lobes or smaller, short petiolate or subsessile and lance-hastate to lanceolate or lance-oblong distally, (10–)15–80 × (3–)5–65 mm, margin denticulate to entire.
in loose glomerules, arranged in foliose, interrupted spikes or axillary, terminating stems and branches.
, both staminate and pistillate, in glomerules arranged in interrupted spikes terminal on stems and branches and in axils of distal leaves, lacking leafy bracts except at base.
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, convex, 2.8–3.6 mm wide, often the only ones present, or black, 1–2 mm.
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.
bracteoles often reddish becoming brown to black in age, sessile or subsessile, or some axillary ones short stipitate, venation obscure to prominent, triangular-hastate, 3–11 mm, base truncate to subcordate or obtuse, united at base, margin denticulate to laciniate, apex acute to acuminate, faces smooth or with 2 small tubercles.
= 18, 36.
= 18.
Atriplex glabriuscula
Atriplex glabriuscula var. franktonii
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.)
Atriplex glabriuscula var. franktonii has been placed in synonymy with A. hastata Linnaeus, i.e., A. prostrata Boucher ex de Candolle, by H. A. Gleason and A. Cronquist (1991), but is evidently more nearly allied to A. glabriuscula within whose range it is completely submersed. It is likewise evidently confined to indigenous salt marsh and beach habitats, unlike the clearly ruderal weedy status of the evidently largely, if not entirely, introduced A. prostrata. P. M. Taschereau (pers. comm.) notes that “the continuous coastal distribution of A. prostrata suggests... that it is native in these saline areas,” but “that the anthropophytic weedy A. prostrata is undoubtedly introduced.”
(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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