Atriplex glabriuscula |
Atriplex watsonii |
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bract orache, glabrous orach, scotland orache |
Watson's orach, Watson's saltbush |
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Habit | Herbs, monoecious, prostrate or sprawling, or sometimes erect, branched, (1–)2–10 dm; branches opposite or subopposite. | Herbs, dioecious, prostrate or decumbent, 2–10 dm. | ||||||||
Stems | green and striped, often blue-green when fresh, weakly ridged, sparsely scurfy to glabrous. |
forming tangled mats 1–3 m across, woody at base, white scurfy. |
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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. |
numerous, mostly opposite; blade broadly elliptic to ovate, 8–25 mm, often surpassing internodes, thick and fleshy (when fresh), margin entire, apex acutish, white scurfy. |
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Flowers | in loose glomerules, arranged in foliose, interrupted spikes or axillary, terminating stems and branches. |
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Staminate flowers | in large glomerules in naked, interrupted terminal spikes; calyx 5-cleft. |
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Pistillate flowers | in small, axillary clusters. |
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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. |
light brown, 1–1.5 mm. |
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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. |
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Fruiting | bracteoles sessile or short stipitate, ovate to rhombic, united to beyond middle, 4–8 mm, margin entire to erose, faces plane. |
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2n | = 18, 36. |
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Atriplex glabriuscula |
Atriplex watsonii |
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Phenology | Flowering spring–fall. | |||||||||
Habitat | Coastal and insular bluffs, beaches, strands, salt marshes, sage scrub, with saltgrass and other salt-tolerant species | |||||||||
Elevation | 0-100 m (0-300 ft) | |||||||||
Distribution |
CT; MA; ME; NH; PA; AB; MB; NB; NS; PE; QC; Europe
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CA; Mexico (Baja California)
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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 watsonii is a sprawling plant that exhibits much variation in leaf size, as attested in the clearly staminate type collection, Palmer 334, wherein the range in size is from 5–25 × 2.5–11 mm wide. Although typically placed adjacent to A. matamorensis, the other dioecious perennial, the two taxa are probably not closely allied. The broader-leaved phases simulate closely A. leucophylla, with which it is sometimes confused, and perhaps the relationship lies in that direction, but it closely simulates A. californica, with which it is probably most closely allied. (Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.) |
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Key |
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Source | FNA vol. 4. | FNA vol. 4, p. 367. | ||||||||
Parent taxa | Chenopodiaceae > Atriplex > subg. Atriplex > sect. Teutliopsis | Chenopodiaceae > Atriplex > subg. Obione > sect. Obione > subsect. Californicae | ||||||||
Sibling taxa | ||||||||||
Subordinate taxa | ||||||||||
Synonyms | A. decumbens | |||||||||
Name authority | Edmondston: Fl. Shetland, 39. (1845) | A. Nelson ex Abrams: Fl. Los Angeles, 128. (1904) | ||||||||
Web links |