Atriplex glabriuscula |
Atriplex hymenelytra |
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bract orache, glabrous orach, scotland orache |
desert-holly |
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Habit | Herbs, monoecious, prostrate or sprawling, or sometimes erect, branched, (1–)2–10 dm; branches opposite or subopposite. | Shrubs, dioecious, 3–15+ dm, as wide, unarmed. | ||||||||
Stems | green and striped, often blue-green when fresh, weakly ridged, sparsely scurfy to glabrous. |
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Leaves | 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. |
persistent, alternate, petiolate; blade greenish to silvery white, orbiculate to reniform or oval, 10–40 mm, as wide or wider, prominently dentate, teeth to 10 mm, permanently scurfy. |
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Flowers | in loose glomerules, arranged in foliose, interrupted spikes or axillary, terminating stems and branches. |
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Staminate flowers | yellow to purple-brown, in clusters 3–4 mm thick, borne in panicles to 3 cm. |
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Pistillate flowers | borne in inflorescences similar to staminate ones. |
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Seeds | 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. |
brown, 2 mm wide; radicle sublateral. |
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Bracteoles | 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. |
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Fruiting | bracteoles sessile, rather prominently veined, orbiculate to reniform, strongly compressed, 7–10 × 7–10 mm, thin, united at base, margin entire to crenate, glabrous, lacking processes. |
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2n | = 18, 36. |
= 18. |
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Atriplex glabriuscula |
Atriplex hymenelytra |
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Phenology | Flowering spring. | |||||||||
Habitat | Warm desert shrub, on dry saline alluvial fans and hills | |||||||||
Elevation | 80-1200 m (300-3900 ft) | |||||||||
Distribution |
CT; MA; ME; NH; PA; AB; MB; NB; NS; PE; QC; Europe
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AZ; CA; NV; UT
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Discussion | 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 hymenelytra occurs with saltbush, Larrea-Ambrosia, ephedra, and yucca. This is a handsome, rounded shrub with silvery white foliage, sometimes contrasting strongly with the peculiar substrates on which it grows. Its relationships to other of the southwestern species are recondite, but possibly it is allied to A. confertifolia, with which C. A. Hanson (1962) suggested an affinity. (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. 376. | ||||||||
Parent taxa | Chenopodiaceae > Atriplex > subg. Atriplex > sect. Teutliopsis | Chenopodiaceae > Atriplex > subg. Pterochiton | ||||||||
Sibling taxa | ||||||||||
Subordinate taxa | ||||||||||
Synonyms | Obione hymenelytra | |||||||||
Name authority | Edmondston: Fl. Shetland, 39. (1845) | (Torrey) S. Watson: Proc. Amer. Acad. Arts 9: 129. (1874) | ||||||||
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