Atriplex glabriuscula |
Atriplex polycarpa |
|||||||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
bract orache, glabrous orach, scotland orache |
allscale, allscale saltbush, cattle saltbush, cattle-spinach, desert saltbush |
|||||||||
Habit | Herbs, monoecious, prostrate or sprawling, or sometimes erect, branched, (1–)2–10 dm; branches opposite or subopposite. | Shrubs, dioecious or sub-monoecious, mainly 10–20 dm. | ||||||||
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. |
tardily deciduous, alternate, sessile or nearly so; blade spatulate to obovate or oblong, 3–15(–2.) × 2–4 mm, margin entire, apex typically acute. |
||||||||
Flowers | in loose glomerules, arranged in foliose, interrupted spikes or axillary, terminating stems and branches. |
|||||||||
Staminate flowers | appearing silvery, in clusters 1.5–3 mm wide, borne in paniculate, naked spikes 5–25 cm; anthers yellow. |
|||||||||
Pistillate flowers | with fruiting bracteoles sessile, cuneate-orbicular to semicircular, 1.5–2.5 × 2–3 mm, united to near middle, margin deeply laciniate-dentate, tuberculate or sometimes smooth dorsally. |
|||||||||
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. |
pale brown, 1–1.5 mm. |
||||||||
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. |
|||||||||
2n | = 18, 36. |
= 18, 36. |
||||||||
Atriplex glabriuscula |
Atriplex polycarpa |
|||||||||
Phenology | Flowering spring–fall. | |||||||||
Habitat | Warm desert shrub communities (creosote bush, ambrosia, shadscale, mesquite, saltgrass, etc.), mainly in fine-textured saline substrates | |||||||||
Elevation | 60-1500 m (200-4900 ft) | |||||||||
Distribution |
CT; MA; ME; NH; PA; AB; MB; NB; NS; PE; QC; Europe
|
AZ; CA; NV; UT; n Mexico (Baja California to Sonora)
|
||||||||
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 polycarpa consists of two or more chromosomal races based on different polyploid levels. The races form hybrids with Atriplex canescens in south California, resulting in partially stabilized entities known as varieties laciniata and macilenta. The plants evidently form hybrids with A. lentiformis. (Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.) |
||||||||
Key |
|
|||||||||
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 polycarpa, A. curvidensB | |||||||||
Name authority | Edmondston: Fl. Shetland, 39. (1845) | (Torrey) S. Watson: Proc. Amer. Acad. Arts 9: 117. (1874) | ||||||||
Web links |