Atriplex obovata |
Atriplex coronata |
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broadscale, mound saltbush, New Mexico saltbush, silver saltbush |
crownscale, wedgescale |
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Habit | Subshrubs, dioecious, clump forming, mainly 2–8 dm and as wide, woody at base. | Herbs, erect or decumbent, 0.5–6 dm; branches terete, fructiferous almost to base, scurfy when young. | ||||||||
Stems | stiffly erect; branchlets terete. |
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Leaves | tardily deciduous, alternate or proximal-most subopposite, shortly petiolate; blade gray green, oblong-ovate to elliptic or orbiculate, 8–30(–35) × 6–20 mm, margin entire or rarely dentate, apex rounded to retuse or obtuse. |
alternate, subsessile or proximal short petiolate; blade ascending, oblong, oblong-ovate, or lanceolate to elliptic, 5–40 × 2–10 mm, thin, base acute to obtuse, margin entire, apex acute to acuminate. |
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Flowers | of both sexes in small axillary glomerules, 5-merous. |
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Staminate flowers | yellow, in clusters 2–3 mm wide, borne in panicles 6–30 cm. |
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Pistillate flowers | in small, very numerous glomerules in axils of elongated, terminal leafy-bracteate spikes or finally paniculate. |
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Seeds | brown, 2.4–2.8 mm. |
light brown to amber, 1–1.5 mm. |
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Fruiting | bracteoles sessile or substipitate, 4–5 × 5–9 mm, base broadly cuneate, margin sharply toothed, apical tooth subtended by 2–6 equal or smaller teeth, faces smooth or rarely tuberculate. |
bracteoles almost sessile, broadly cuneate, 2–5 × (2–)2.5–5 mm, united to summit, truncate at summit, sides smooth or obscurely tuberculate. |
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2n | = 36. |
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Atriplex obovata |
Atriplex coronata |
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Phenology | Flowering summer–fall. | |||||||||
Habitat | Fine-textured substrates, with salt desert shrub and lower pinyon-juniper communities | |||||||||
Elevation | 1500-2000 m (4900-6600 ft) | |||||||||
Distribution |
AZ; CO; NM; TX; UT; Mexico
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CA
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Discussion | Varieties 3 (3 in the flora). Although placed within the Atriplex argentea species complex by P. C. Standley (1916), this taxon appears more nearly allied to A. cordulata, differing mainly in leaf shape, round-ovate or deltoid-ovate to elliptic or lanceolate (not ovate to cordate-ovate), and markedly tuberculate faces of the fruiting bracteoles. (Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.) |
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Key |
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Source | FNA vol. 4, p. 371. | FNA vol. 4. | ||||||||
Parent taxa | Chenopodiaceae > Atriplex > subg. Pterochiton | Chenopodiaceae > Atriplex > subg. Obione > sect. Obione > subsect. Pusillae | ||||||||
Sibling taxa | ||||||||||
Subordinate taxa | ||||||||||
Synonyms | A. greggii, A. jonesii, A. obovata var. tuberata | A. elegans var. coronata, Obione coronata | ||||||||
Name authority | Moquin-Tandon: Chenop. Monogr. Enum., 61. (1840) | S. Watson: Proc. Amer. Acad. Arts 9: 114. (1874) | ||||||||
Web links |