Flora of North America species comparison

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Atriplex joaquiniana

San Joaquin orach
Habit Herbs, monoecious or subdioecious, erect, sparsely branched, (1–)3–10 dm; branches obtusely angled, rather rigidly ascending, finely farinose when young.
Leaves

mostly alternate;

petiole 0.5–2.5 cm, becoming shorter or subsessile in distal ones;

blade deltoid to rhombic-ovate or lanceolate, (10–)15–50(–70) × 8–40 mm, base rounded, truncate, or broadly cuneate, margin irregularly sinuate-dentate or repand-dentate to entire, sometimes subhastate, apex obtuse to acute;

distal blades often narrower and sometimes entire except for basal lobes.
Flowers

in dense or interrupted, naked, simple or paniculate spikes mainly 5–8 mm thick, staminate ones 4-merous.
Seeds

dark brown or black, 0.8–1.5 mm;

radicle inferior.
Fruiting

bracteoles densely packed on rachis, sessile, ovate-oblong or rounded-deltoid, (2–)2.5–3(–4.5) mm, united only at rounded or truncate base, angled and cristate on faces, thin or spongy-thickened.

Atriplex joaquiniana
Phenology Flowering summer.
Habitat Alkali sink scrub or alkaline grasslands
Elevation 0-200(-300) m (0-700(-1000) ft)
Distribution
from FNA
CA
Discussion

Atriplex joaquiniana commonly occurs with Distichlis spicata, Allenrolfea occidentalis, Suaeda moquinii, Frankenia salina, Hordeum depressum, Spergularia macrotheca, and various annual species. H. M. Hall and F. E. Clements (1923) placed the relationship of this very distinctive California endemic with the Atriplex patula complex, with which one can make out a distant affinity. It differs from all other members previously treated within that complex in the small, more or less quadrangular fruiting bracteoles, which are typically crested on one or both elevated faces and have entire or less commonly dentate margins. The bracteoles are borne in very compact simple or paniculate spikes.

(Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.)
Source FNA vol. 4, p. 335.
Parent taxa Chenopodiaceae > Atriplex > subg. Atriplex > sect. Teutliopsis
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. glabriuscula, A. gmelinii, A. graciliflora, A. heterosperma, A. holocarpa, A. hortensis, A. hymenelytra, 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
Synonyms A. spicata, A. patula subsp. spicata, A. spicata var. lagunita
Name authority A. Nelson: Proc. Biol. Soc. Wash. 17: 99. (1904)
Web links 
Unless otherwise noted, all data comes from the online version of the Flora of North America, who have made most of their content available via a Creative Commons license (CC BY 4.0).



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