Atriplex lentiformis |
Atriplex saccaria |
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big saltbrush, big saltbush, quail bush |
sack saltbush, sack saltweed, stalk orach, stalk orache |
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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. | Herbs, erect, forming rounded clumps. | ||||||||
Stems | mainly 0.5–4(–5) dm; stems usually branched from base, terete, stout, angled; herbage scurfy. |
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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. |
alternate or proximalmost subopposite, short petiolate or distal ones sessile; petiole 2–5 mm; blade cordate-ovate or subreniform to ovate to deltoid-ovate or oval, mainly 6–40 × 4–30 mm, base truncate to subcordate or broadly cuneate, margin entire or in some subhastately lobed or sometimes undulate-dentate, apex acute to rounded. |
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Staminate flowers | yellow, in clusters 1–2 mm wide, borne in panicles 0.5–5 dm. |
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Pistillate flowers | with less complex panicles. |
usually in fascicles of 1–3 in proximal axils. |
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Seeds | brown, 0.8–1.6 mm wide. |
brownish to whitish, 1.5–2.3 mm. |
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Fruiting | bracteoles sessile, orbiculate to oval, greatly compressed, mainly 3–4.5 mm and wide, crenulate, apex rounded. |
bracteoles monomorphic or dimorphic, larger ones on stipes (2–)4–8(–15) mm, others sessile, united at base, round-triangular or suborbicular, 4–6 mm, irregularly and coarsely dentate and with ± densely beset with flat, cristate, or hornlike appendages, smaller bracteoles (lacking or rare in var. asterocarpa) in same axils, oblong to cuneate, 3–4 mm, apex truncate, dentate only at summit, faces smooth. |
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Staminate | glomerules in distal axils or in short, naked, terminal (early deciduous) panicles; flowers with 5-parted calyx. |
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2n | = 18. |
= 18. |
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Atriplex lentiformis |
Atriplex saccaria |
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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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AZ; CO; NM; UT; WY
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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.) |
Varieties 3 (3 in the flora). (Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.) |
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Key |
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Source | FNA vol. 4, p. 377. | FNA vol. 4. | ||||||||
Parent taxa | Chenopodiaceae > Atriplex > subg. Pterochiton | Chenopodiaceae > Atriplex > subg. Obione > sect. Obione > subsect. Saccariae | ||||||||
Sibling taxa | ||||||||||
Subordinate taxa | ||||||||||
Synonyms | Obione lentiformis, A. breweri, A. lentiformis subsp. breweri, A. lentiformis var. breweri | A. truncata var. saccaria, Obione saccaria | ||||||||
Name authority | (Torrey) S. Watson: Proc. Amer. Acad. Arts 9: 118. (1874) | S. Watson: Proc. Amer. Acad. Arts 9: 112. (1874) | ||||||||
Web links |