Atriplex obovata |
Atriplex glabriuscula |
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broadscale, mound saltbush, New Mexico saltbush, silver saltbush |
bract orache, glabrous orach, scotland orache |
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Habit | Subshrubs, dioecious, clump forming, mainly 2–8 dm and as wide, woody at base. | Herbs, monoecious, prostrate or sprawling, or sometimes erect, branched, (1–)2–10 dm; branches opposite or subopposite. | ||||||||
Stems | stiffly erect; branchlets terete. |
green and striped, often blue-green when fresh, weakly ridged, sparsely scurfy to glabrous. |
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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. |
petiole 0.2–2.5(–3.5) cm; blade all entire or some or all triangular or lance-hastate with lobes spreading to antrorse, 5–100 × 3–80 mm, base abruptly to narrowly cuneate, entire or irregularly toothed. |
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Flowers | in loose glomerules, arranged in foliose, interrupted spikes or axillary, terminating stems and branches. |
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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. |
dimorphic: brown, 2.5–4 mm wide (often the only ones present), or black, (1.2–)1.5–2.9(–3) mm wide; radicle median, ± antrorse, of brown seed basal and spreading. |
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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. |
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Bracteoles | green, becoming black or reddish to yellow brown, sessile or some short stipitate, venation obscure, ovate-triangular to rhombic-triangular, 5–13 mm, margin united almost to middle, with few irregular teeth or entire, apex abruptly acuminate, faces irregularly muricate, tuberculate, or smooth, inflated, spongy inner layer strongly developed at bracteole base. |
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2n | = 18, 36. |
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Atriplex obovata |
Atriplex glabriuscula |
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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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CT; MA; ME; NH; PA; AB; MB; NB; NS; PE; QC; Europe
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Discussion | Varieties 3 (3 in the flora). Members of the Atriplex glabriuscula complex occupy saline or brackish marshes and saline coastal strands mainly in the eastern maritime provinces of Canada, with extensions in similar habitats into the northeastern United States. They are seldom, if ever, ruderal weeds and appear to be indigenous or perhaps early introduced in some part from similar European habitats. The constituent taxa have been regarded at specific level (P. M. Taschereau 1972; I. J. Bassett et al. 1983). They are, however, alike in all major morphologic features, and are apparently closely allied. For those who wish to treat them at specific level, the names are supplied in the synonymy. (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. Atriplex > sect. Teutliopsis | ||||||||
Sibling taxa | ||||||||||
Subordinate taxa | ||||||||||
Synonyms | A. greggii, A. jonesii, A. obovata var. tuberata | |||||||||
Name authority | Moquin-Tandon: Chenop. Monogr. Enum., 61. (1840) | Edmondston: Fl. Shetland, 39. (1845) | ||||||||
Web links |