Atriplex lentiformis |
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big saltbrush, big saltbush, quail bush |
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Habit | Shrubs, dioecious or less commonly monoecious, mainly 10–25(–35) dm, as broad or broader, unarmed or rarely so; branchlets terete, commonly puberulent. |
Leaves | persistent, alternate, petiolate; blade gray-green, deltate to rhombic, ovate, or oblong-elliptic, 5–50 × 5–50 mm, base truncate to subhastate, margin entire to repand or subhastately lobed, apex rounded to obtuse, scurfy. |
Staminate flowers | yellow, in clusters 1–2 mm wide, borne in panicles 0.5–5 dm. |
Pistillate flowers | with less complex panicles. |
Seeds | brown, 0.8–1.6 mm wide. |
Fruiting | bracteoles sessile, orbiculate to oval, greatly compressed, mainly 3–4.5 mm and wide, crenulate, apex rounded. |
2n | = 18. |
Atriplex lentiformis |
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Phenology | Flowering spring–fall. |
Habitat | Saline to essentially non-saline drainages, stream and canal banks, roadsides, warm desert shrub, saltbush, and riparian communities |
Elevation | 70-1000 m (200-3300 ft) |
Distribution |
AZ; CA; NV; UT; Mexico
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Discussion | Materials of big saltbush from the coastal and near coastal regions of California have somewhat broader, merely ovate, rounded leaves, and they have been regarded either at species level as Atriplex breweri S. Watson or at either varietal or subspecific level (see synonymy). The plants intergrade completely in interior situations with typical A. lentiformis, and their recognition at taxonomic level seems superfluous. C. A. Hanson (1962) noted the existence of putative hybrids between A. lentiformis and the herbaceous species A. leucophylla and A. davidsonii. Putative hybrids are also known between this species and A. canescens. (Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.) |
Source | FNA vol. 4, p. 377. |
Parent taxa | Chenopodiaceae > Atriplex > subg. Pterochiton |
Sibling taxa | |
Synonyms | Obione lentiformis, A. breweri, A. lentiformis subsp. breweri, A. lentiformis var. breweri |
Name authority | (Torrey) S. Watson: Proc. Amer. Acad. Arts 9: 118. (1874) |
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