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slenderleaf saltbush, thinleaf fourwing saltbush

Habit Shrubs dioecious, erect, mainly 10–25 dm; branchlets slender, terete.
Leaves

sessile;

blade narrowly linear-elliptic, 10–50 × 2–3 mm, firm, revolute, often acute apically.

Staminate flowers

in glomerules borne in slender interrupted mostly paniculate spikes.

Pistillate flowers

paniculate or in few-flowered axillary glomerules.

Fruiting

bracteoles sessile or subsessile, lanceolate to ovate, 4–6 mm, about as wide, each bract with a pair of thin wings 3 mm broad or less, irregularly dentate or laciniate, free tips of bracts much exceeding the wings.

2n

= 18.

Atriplex linearis

Phenology Flowering spring–fall.
Habitat Saline deserts, with shadscale, Canotia, Yucca, Opuntia, Rhus, and Eriogonum
Elevation 0-800 m (0-2600 ft)
Distribution
from FNA
AZ; CA; nw Mexico (Baja California, Sonora)
[WildflowerSearch map]
Discussion

Specimens of Atriplex canescens var. macilenta resemble A. linearis. The taxa have been placed together by some previous workers. Nevertheless, the stems of A. linearis are consistently more slender, the leaves proportionally narrower, and the bracts, though smaller, more closely simulate those of A. canescens. Its diploid nature signals a different evolutionary pathway than that for most of A. canescens, considered broadly. Narrow leaves occur within A. canescens, in the broad sense, sometimes with geographic correlation, sometimes not.

(Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.)

Source FNA vol. 4, p. 381.
Parent taxa Chenopodiaceae > Atriplex > subg. Pterochiton
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. joaquiniana, A. klebergorum, A. laciniata, A. lentiformis, A. leucophylla, A. lindleyi, 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. canescens subsp. linearis, A. canescens var. linearis
Name authority S. Watson: Proc. Amer. Acad. Arts 24: 72. (1889)
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