Atriplex klebergorum
Atriplex amnicola
Kleberg orach, Kleberg's saltbush
swamp saltbush
erect, diffuse;
branches alternate, numerous, horizontal or distally ascending, terete, 1.5–4 dm, densely white farinose when young, glabrate in age;
bark becoming pale brownish white and flaky;
internodes mostly shorter than 1(–2.4) cm.
alternate, proximalmost subopposite, sessile;
blade ovate-deltoid, 0.5–1.5(–2.5) × 5–12(–15) mm, rather firm and flat, base rounded, truncate, or slightly clasping, margin entire or toothed, apex acute, very densely canescent-farinose with a greenish yellow tinge.
short petiolate;
blade elliptic to narrowly oblong or narrowly hastate with short divaricate basal lobes, 10–25 mm, margin entire or remotely dentate, apex obtuse to acute.
sessile, axillary, inconspicuous, mostly in leafy lateral branches with extremely short internodes, arising toward tips of secondary branches.
in most distal axils, 2 mm wide;
sepals 3–5, mostly hyaline, curved elliptic, 1.5–1.7 mm, mucronulate, farinose dorsally.
in compact glomerules 5 mm thick, forming terminal spikes.
densely farinose;
bracteoles adnate to ovary.
in axillary clusters and forming short, dense terminal spikes.
dark reddish brown, round-lenticular, 1.5 mm wide, shining;
radicle superior.
circular.
bracteoles variably and irregularly 3–7-cleft, ovate-orbicular, 3.1–4.7 × (3.2–)4–7 mm, typically somewhat constricted below middle, with terminal lobes (1–)1.5–2.8 mm, densely scurfy, faces doubly cristate or smooth.
bracteoles somewhat rhombic to semicircular, biconvex, 4–6 mm wide, with a short hard turbinate base, thick and hard throughout or with a herbaceous margin, lacking appendages.
Atriplex klebergorum
Atriplex amnicola
Of conservation concern.
The species was noted by its author as apparently belonging in sect. Argenteae Standley; I concur with that alignment. The overall shape of the bracteoles with a subterminal constriction is reminiscent of those of Atriplex powellii, but the bracteole shape is otherwise distinctive, and the long marginal teeth and occasional elongate cristate processes on the faces are unmatched elsewhere in the Argenteae.
(Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.)
This is a singular, large, mostly dioecious shrub well established on the beach at Malibu, California. It produces abundant, hard, rhombic fruiting bracteoles. In its native western Australia, it occurs in coastal regions and inland along creeks and the outer margins of salt lakes.
(Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.)
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