Atriplex glabriuscula |
Atriplex nummularia |
|||||||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
bract orache, glabrous orach, scotland orache |
bluegreen saltbush, old man saltbush |
|||||||||
Habit | Herbs, monoecious, prostrate or sprawling, or sometimes erect, branched, (1–)2–10 dm; branches opposite or subopposite. | Shrubs, semidioecious, mainly (15–)20–30 dm, with striated twigs. | ||||||||
Stems | green and striped, often blue-green when fresh, weakly ridged, sparsely scurfy to glabrous. |
|||||||||
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. |
mostly alternate, short petiolate; blade broadly ovate, rhombic to suborbiculate, (15–)30–65 mm, about as wide, thick, base cuneate, margin sinuate-dentate, apex obtuse to rounded. |
||||||||
Flowers | in loose glomerules, arranged in foliose, interrupted spikes or axillary, terminating stems and branches. |
|||||||||
Staminate flowers | crowded in glomerules on short or elongate, interrupted spikes in large paniculate clusters to 20 cm. |
|||||||||
Pistillate flowers | in dense, compound panicles, or axillary, or along staminate panicle branches. |
|||||||||
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. |
||||||||
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. |
|||||||||
Fruiting | bracteoles sessile, reticulately veined, rhombic to orbiculate, 5–12(–15) × 5–11 mm, papery all over or thick and corky, margin subentire to coarsely few-toothed. |
|||||||||
2n | = 18, 36. |
|||||||||
Atriplex glabriuscula |
Atriplex nummularia |
|||||||||
Phenology | Flowering summer–fall. | |||||||||
Habitat | Sandy coastal bluffs, disturbed sites such as roadsides | |||||||||
Elevation | 0-2300 m (0-7500 ft) | |||||||||
Distribution |
CT; MA; ME; NH; PA; AB; MB; NB; NS; PE; QC; Europe
|
AZ; CA; Mexico; Australia [Introduced in North America] |
||||||||
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 nummularia is a rather coarse, broad-leaved, vigorous shrub, which has spread from some early introduction from Australia, possibly for use in stabilizing land. (Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.) |
||||||||
Key |
|
|||||||||
Source | FNA vol. 4. | FNA vol. 4, p. 343. | ||||||||
Parent taxa | Chenopodiaceae > Atriplex > subg. Atriplex > sect. Teutliopsis | Chenopodiaceae > Atriplex > subg. Atriplex > sect. Dialysex | ||||||||
Sibling taxa | ||||||||||
Subordinate taxa | ||||||||||
Synonyms | A. johnstonii | |||||||||
Name authority | Edmondston: Fl. Shetland, 39. (1845) | Lindley: in T. L. Mitchell, J. Exped. Trop. Australia, 64. (1848) | ||||||||
Web links |