Atriplex glabriuscula
Atriplex linearis
bract orache, glabrous orach, scotland orache
slenderleaf saltbush, thinleaf fourwing 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.
sessile;
blade narrowly linear-elliptic, 10–50 × 2–3 mm, firm, revolute, often acute apically.
in loose glomerules, arranged in foliose, interrupted spikes or axillary, terminating stems and branches.
in glomerules borne in slender interrupted mostly paniculate spikes.
paniculate or in few-flowered axillary glomerules.
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.
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 sessile or subsessile, lanceolate to ovate, 4–6 mm, about as wide, each bract with a pair of thin wings 3 mm broad or less, irregularly dentate or laciniate, free tips of bracts much exceeding the wings.
= 18, 36.
= 18.
Atriplex glabriuscula
Atriplex linearis
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.)
Specimens of Atriplex canescens var. macilenta resemble A. linearis. The taxa have been placed together by some previous workers. Nevertheless, the stems of A. linearis are consistently more slender, the leaves proportionally narrower, and the bracts, though smaller, more closely simulate those of A. canescens. Its diploid nature signals a different evolutionary pathway than that for most of A. canescens, considered broadly. Narrow leaves occur within A. canescens, in the broad sense, sometimes with geographic correlation, sometimes not.
(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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