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bract orache, glabrous orach, scotland orache

Tatarian orach, Tatarian orache

Habit Herbs, monoecious, prostrate or sprawling, or sometimes erect, branched, (1–)2–10 dm; branches opposite or subopposite. Herbs, much branched, forming tangled or spreading masses.
Stems

green and striped, often blue-green when fresh, weakly ridged, sparsely scurfy to glabrous.

with branches divaricate or ascending, terete or obtusely angled, 2–10(–15) dm, sparsely scurfy when young.

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.

alternate (or the proximalmost opposite), long petiolate becoming nearly sessile distally, blade ovate to triangular, 15–50(–60) × 10–40 mm, base subhastate or cuneate, margin deeply or shallowly sinuate-dentate with acute or obtuse teeth, apex acute or obtuse, distalmost bracteate blades becoming entire and linear or oblong-linear.

Flowers

in loose glomerules, arranged in foliose, interrupted spikes or axillary, terminating stems and branches.

Staminate flowers

in glomerules borne in slender, naked or sparingly bracteate (at base), mostly interrupted simple or paniculate spikes, calyx 5-cleft.

Pistillate flowers

fascicled in distal axils.

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, 1.5–2 mm;

radicle inferior, ascending.

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 strongly 3-veined and reticulate, sessile or short stipitate, ovate-rhombic or subflabelliform, 4–8 × 3–7 mm, moderately compressed, united from narrowed base to middle, margin broad, foliaceous, coarsely dentate, indurate at maturity, faces tuberculate or smooth.

2n

= 18, 36.

Atriplex glabriuscula

Atriplex tatarica

Phenology Flowering late summer–fall.
Habitat Atlantic and Gulf coasts, ballast and waste grounds
Elevation 0-50 m (0-200 ft)
Distribution
from FNA
CT; MA; ME; NH; PA; AB; MB; NB; NS; PE; QC; Europe
[WildflowerSearch map]
[BONAP county map]
from FNA
AL; CT; FL; MA; NH; NJ; PA; Europe [Introduced in North America]
[BONAP county map]
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.)

H. M. Hall and F. E. Clements (1923) treated Atriplex tatarica at specific level with the above distribution (as an introduced ballast plant of rare occurrence), but did not recognize the closely similar A. laciniata, which is currently the species recognized for coastal eastern America. They evidently interpreted A. tatarica to include A. lampa Gillies as identified by P. C. Standley (1916). Atriplex lampa is a shrubby species from South America and does not figure in consideration of North American taxa. Atriplex tatarica includes a complex of forms and varieties in Flora URSS (M. M. Iljin 1936). In Flora Europaea (P. Aellen 1964b) A. tatarica and A. laciniata are separated in the key by the glomerules of A. tatarica being borne in terminal, leafless, often long panicles, whereas those of A. laciniata are borne axillary or in leafy clusters. The species differ otherwise in stature, A. laciniata being a dwarf plant up to 30 cm and with small leaves, A. tatarica being a robust annual up to 150 cm, and with large leaves. The illustration by Hall and Clements (fig. 38) shows a plant with leafy panicle.

Atriplex tatarica has been ignored by H. A. Gleason and A. Cronquist (1991) and by all other authors of floras covering the northeastern United States.

(Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.)

Key
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
Source FNA vol. 4. FNA vol. 4, p. 341.
Parent taxa Chenopodiaceae > Atriplex > subg. Atriplex > sect. Teutliopsis Chenopodiaceae > Atriplex > subg. Atriplex > sect. Sclerocalymma
Sibling taxa
A. acanthocarpa, A. amnicola, A. argentea, A. californica, A. canescens, A. confertifolia, A. cordulata, A. coronata, A. corrugata, A. coulteri, A. covillei, A. dioica, A. elegans, A. fruticulosa, A. gardneri, A. garrettii, A. gmelinii, A. graciliflora, A. heterosperma, A. holocarpa, A. hortensis, A. hymenelytra, A. joaquiniana, A. klebergorum, A. laciniata, A. lentiformis, A. leucophylla, A. lindleyi, A. linearis, A. littoralis, A. matamorensis, A. mucronata, A. nudicaulis, A. nummularia, A. oblongifolia, A. obovata, A. pacifica, A. parishii, A. parryi, A. patula, A. pentandra, A. phyllostegia, A. pleiantha, A. polycarpa, A. powellii, A. prostrata, A. pusilla, A. rosea, A. saccaria, A. semibaccata, A. serenana, A. spinifera, A. suberecta, A. suckleyi, A. tatarica, A. torreyi, A. truncata, A. tularensis, A. watsonii, A. wolfii, A. wrightii
A. acanthocarpa, A. amnicola, A. argentea, A. californica, A. canescens, A. confertifolia, A. cordulata, A. coronata, A. corrugata, A. coulteri, A. covillei, A. dioica, A. elegans, A. fruticulosa, A. gardneri, A. garrettii, A. glabriuscula, A. gmelinii, A. graciliflora, A. heterosperma, A. holocarpa, A. hortensis, A. hymenelytra, A. joaquiniana, A. klebergorum, A. laciniata, A. lentiformis, A. leucophylla, A. lindleyi, A. linearis, A. littoralis, A. matamorensis, A. mucronata, A. nudicaulis, A. nummularia, A. oblongifolia, A. obovata, A. pacifica, A. parishii, A. parryi, A. patula, A. pentandra, A. phyllostegia, A. pleiantha, A. polycarpa, A. powellii, A. prostrata, A. pusilla, A. rosea, A. saccaria, A. semibaccata, A. serenana, A. spinifera, A. suberecta, A. suckleyi, A. torreyi, A. truncata, A. tularensis, A. watsonii, A. wolfii, A. wrightii
Subordinate taxa
A. glabriuscula var. acadiensis, A. glabriuscula var. franktonii, A. glabriuscula var. glabriuscula
Name authority Edmondston: Fl. Shetland, 39. (1845) Linnaeus: Sp. Pl. 2: 1053. (1753)
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