Atriplex obovata |
Atriplex coulteri |
|
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broadscale, mound saltbush, New Mexico saltbush, silver saltbush |
Coulter's orach, Coulter's orache, Coulter's saltbush |
|
Habit | Subshrubs, dioecious, clump forming, mainly 2–8 dm and as wide, woody at base. | Herbs, perennial, sometimes flowering as an annual, spreading 0.7–10 dm, slightly woody at base. |
Stems | stiffly erect; branchlets terete. |
frequently tinged with red, much branched, sparsely scurfy. |
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. |
many, sessile or short petiolate; blade obovate, oblong, oblanceolate, or elliptic, (5–)7–20 × 1–3(–5) mm, base cuneate, margin entire, apex acute. |
Staminate flowers | yellow, in clusters 2–3 mm wide, borne in panicles 6–30 cm. |
in glomerules in distal axils and short terminal spikes. |
Pistillate flowers | in small, very numerous glomerules in axils of elongated, terminal leafy-bracteate spikes or finally paniculate. |
in small axillary clusters. |
Seeds | brown, 2.4–2.8 mm. |
brown, 1.3–1.5 mm. |
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 sessile or subsessile, broadly obovate, 2–3 mm and as broad or about as broad, united 1/2 of length, margin free, deeply and sharply dentate, narrowed at summit, faces smooth or sometimes tuberculate. |
Atriplex obovata |
Atriplex coulteri |
|
Phenology | Flowering summer–fall. | Flowering spring–fall. |
Habitat | Fine-textured substrates, with salt desert shrub and lower pinyon-juniper communities | Somewhat alkaline or clay low places, valley grasslands, coastal sage scrub, coastal slopes |
Elevation | 1500-2000 m (4900-6600 ft) | 0-500 m (0-1600 ft) |
Distribution |
AZ; CO; NM; TX; UT; Mexico
|
CA
|
Discussion | Of conservation concern. Atriplex coulteri is closely allied to the geographically disjunct A. fruticulosa, from which it is said to differ in the compressed, small (2.5–3 mm) versus thickened and larger (3–5 mm) bracts. Specimens of A. fruticulosa, including the type, examined by me have bracteoles compressed-thickened, but hardly “globoid” as stated in the key to the species by H. M. Hall and F. E. Clements (1923). Additional specimens borrowed from California might clarify the situation; otherwise the two species are sufficiently close as to be treated as a single entity. (Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.) |
|
Source | FNA vol. 4, p. 371. | FNA vol. 4, p. 363. |
Parent taxa | Chenopodiaceae > Atriplex > subg. Pterochiton | Chenopodiaceae > Atriplex > subg. Obione > sect. Obione > subsect. Arenariae |
Sibling taxa | ||
Synonyms | A. greggii, A. jonesii, A. obovata var. tuberata | Obione coulteri |
Name authority | Moquin-Tandon: Chenop. Monogr. Enum., 61. (1840) | (Moquin-Tandon) D. Dietrich: Syn. Pl. 5: 537. (1852) |
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