Atriplex glabriuscula
Atriplex wolfii
bract orache, glabrous orach, scotland orache
slender orach, Wolf's saltweed
green and striped, often blue-green when fresh, weakly ridged, sparsely scurfy to glabrous.
simple or more commonly branched throughout, mainly 0.7–3.5 dm, branches terete;
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.
blade concolorous, linear to narrowly lanceolate, mainly 4–25 × 1–3 mm.
in loose glomerules, arranged in foliose, interrupted spikes or axillary, terminating stems and branches.
very small, both sexes in the same sessile, axillary clusters.
sepals 5.
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, 1–2 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.
bracteoles sessile, ovate to cuneate in outline, 1.5–2.7 × 1.1–2.1 mm, apex truncate to attenuate, faces smooth or tuberculate.
= 18, 36.
Atriplex glabriuscula
Atriplex wolfii
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 2 (2 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. Fruiting bracteoles with lateral distalmost lobes much larger and broader than median one; sc Colorado | var. wolfii |
1. Fruiting bracteoles with distalmost lobe typically but not always larger and broader than any lateral lobes, comprising much of bract length; nw Colorado, sw Wyoming, and c to ne Utah. | var. tenuissima |
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