Atriplex leucophylla |
Atriplex hymenelytra |
|
---|---|---|
beach saltbush, sea scale, whiteleaf orach |
desert-holly |
|
Habit | Herbs, prostrate (decumbent or procumbent), many branched, 1.5–6 dm, somewhat woody below, coarse, white scurfy. | Shrubs, dioecious, 3–15+ dm, as wide, unarmed. |
Leaves | many, sometimes crowded; blade orbiculate to ovate or ovate-lanceolate to elliptic or oblong, 8–40 × 4–18 mm, base obtuse or rounded, white scurfy. |
persistent, alternate, petiolate; blade greenish to silvery white, orbiculate to reniform or oval, 10–40 mm, as wide or wider, prominently dentate, teeth to 10 mm, permanently scurfy. |
Staminate flowers | in dense terminal spikes. |
yellow to purple-brown, in clusters 3–4 mm thick, borne in panicles to 3 cm. |
Pistillate flowers | in few-flowered, axillary clusters. |
borne in inflorescences similar to staminate ones. |
Seeds | dark red-brown, 2.5–3 mm. |
brown, 2 mm wide; radicle sublateral. |
Fruiting | bracteoles not compressed, 5–7 mm, faces usually with wartlike projections, scurfy. |
bracteoles sessile, rather prominently veined, orbiculate to reniform, strongly compressed, 7–10 × 7–10 mm, thin, united at base, margin entire to crenate, glabrous, lacking processes. |
2n | = 18. |
|
Atriplex leucophylla |
Atriplex hymenelytra |
|
Phenology | Flowering spring–fall. | Flowering spring. |
Habitat | Sea beaches, along coasts, at higher elevation inland | Warm desert shrub, on dry saline alluvial fans and hills |
Elevation | 0-30 m (0-100 ft) | 80-1200 m (300-3900 ft) |
Distribution |
CA; Mexico (Baja California)
|
AZ; CA; NV; UT
|
Discussion | Atriplex leucophylla occurs with Potentilla, Camissonia, Ambrosia, Cakile, and Calystegia. (Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.) |
Atriplex hymenelytra occurs with saltbush, Larrea-Ambrosia, ephedra, and yucca. This is a handsome, rounded shrub with silvery white foliage, sometimes contrasting strongly with the peculiar substrates on which it grows. Its relationships to other of the southwestern species are recondite, but possibly it is allied to A. confertifolia, with which C. A. Hanson (1962) suggested an affinity. (Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.) |
Source | FNA vol. 4, p. 366. | FNA vol. 4, p. 376. |
Parent taxa | Chenopodiaceae > Atriplex > subg. Obione > sect. Obione > subsect. Leucophyllae | Chenopodiaceae > Atriplex > subg. Pterochiton |
Sibling taxa | ||
Synonyms | Obione leucophylla | Obione hymenelytra |
Name authority | (Moquin-Tandon) D. Dietrich: Syn. Pl. 5: 536. (1852) | (Torrey) S. Watson: Proc. Amer. Acad. Arts 9: 129. (1874) |
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