Atriplex glabriuscula
Atriplex saccaria
bract orache, glabrous orach, scotland orache
sack saltbush, sack saltweed, stalk orach, stalk orache
green and striped, often blue-green when fresh, weakly ridged, sparsely scurfy to glabrous.
mainly 0.5–4(–5) dm;
stems usually branched from base, terete, stout, angled;
herbage scurfy.
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.
alternate or proximalmost subopposite, short petiolate or distal ones sessile;
petiole 2–5 mm;
blade cordate-ovate or subreniform to ovate to deltoid-ovate or oval, mainly 6–40 × 4–30 mm, base truncate to subcordate or broadly cuneate, margin entire or in some subhastately lobed or sometimes undulate-dentate, apex acute to rounded.
in loose glomerules, arranged in foliose, interrupted spikes or axillary, terminating stems and branches.
usually in fascicles of 1–3 in proximal axils.
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.
brownish to whitish, 1.5–2.3 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.
glomerules in distal axils or in short, naked, terminal (early deciduous) panicles;
flowers with 5-parted calyx.
bracteoles monomorphic or dimorphic, larger ones on stipes (2–)4–8(–15) mm, others sessile, united at base, round-triangular or suborbicular, 4–6 mm, irregularly and coarsely dentate and with ± densely beset with flat, cristate, or hornlike appendages, smaller bracteoles (lacking or rare in var. asterocarpa) in same axils, oblong to cuneate, 3–4 mm, apex truncate, dentate only at summit, faces smooth.
= 18, 36.
= 18.
Atriplex glabriuscula
Atriplex saccaria
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.)
Varieties 3 (3 in the flora).
(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 |
1. Leaves mainly ovate to cordate in profile, the distalmost bracteate ones (and sometimes all) often broadly so in age; fruiting bracteoles with stipes to 10 mm, but seldom exceeding 6 mm; Arizona, New Mexico, Wyoming, s to Texas | var. saccaria |
1. Leaves oval to rhombic, the bases truncate to cuneate-attenuate; fruiting bracteoles with stipes of various length; sw Utah and adjacent states | → 2 |
2. Leaves oval to suborbiculate or less commonly elliptic; fruiting bracteoles with hornlike appendages, borne on stipes mainly 2-6 mm | var. asterocarpa |
2. Leaves rhombic to oval or triangular, base cuneate-attenuate; fruiting bracteoles with flattened processes, borne on stipes mainly 2-15 mm (sessile in some) | var. cornuta |
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