Atriplex obovata |
Atriplex patula |
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broadscale, mound saltbush, New Mexico saltbush, silver saltbush |
common orache, halberd-leaf orache, spear orach, spear orache, spear oracle, spear saltbush, spear saltweed, spearscal e, spearscale orache |
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Habit | Subshrubs, dioecious, clump forming, mainly 2–8 dm and as wide, woody at base. | Herbs, monoecious or subdioecious, (1.5–)3–9(–15) dm. |
Stems | stiffly erect; branchlets terete. |
mostly erect and branched, branches green, obtusely angled or striate, glabrate. |
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 except the proximalmost, petiolate; blade green on both sides, rhombic-lanceolate to lanceolate, oblong, or narrowly lance-oblong or hastate-ovate, 25–120 × 3–40(–75) mm, entire or toothed, proximal ones broadly cuneate or sometimes hastate subbasally with obliquely antrorse basal lobes, distal cauline leaves lanceolate and entire. |
Flowers | compact or interrupted spiciform or paniculiform clusters. |
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Staminate flowers | yellow, in clusters 2–3 mm wide, borne in panicles 6–30 cm. |
mostly 5-merous. |
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, 2.5–3(–3.5) mm wide, or black, 1–2 mm wide; radicle of brown seeds subbasal to median, antrorse. |
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 green becoming black, rhombic to rhombic-triangular, or ovate-rhombic, compressed, ± uniformly sized, 2–7(–20) mm, base mostly hastate, acute, margin united almost to middle, entire or sparingly toothed, surfaces tuberculate. |
2n | = 36. |
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Atriplex obovata |
Atriplex patula |
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Phenology | Flowering summer–fall. | Flowering summer–fall. |
Habitat | Fine-textured substrates, with salt desert shrub and lower pinyon-juniper communities | Widespread ruderal weed of nonsaline substrates such as fields, gardens, and roadsides |
Elevation | 1500-2000 m (4900-6600 ft) | 0-2100 m (0-6900 ft) |
Distribution |
AZ; CO; NM; TX; UT; Mexico
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AK; AL; CA; CO; DC; DE; IA; ID; IL; IN; MA; MD; ME; MI; MO; MT; NC; ND; NH; NV; NY; OH; PA; RI; SD; UT; VA; VT; WI; WY; AB; BC; MB; NB; NF; NS; ON; QC; SK; YT; Europe; Asia; n Africa
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Discussion | Atriplex patula appears to have been a rather recent introduction in North America from Eurasia, not arriving perhaps until sometime in the early to mid-eighteenth century. It simulates depauperate specimens of A. dioica, A. glabriuscula, and other similar species when leaves are reduced to a near-linear profile. Such specimens are difficult if not impossible to assign to any of the species. (Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.) |
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Source | FNA vol. 4, p. 371. | FNA vol. 4, p. 333. |
Parent taxa | Chenopodiaceae > Atriplex > subg. Pterochiton | Chenopodiaceae > Atriplex > subg. Atriplex > sect. Teutliopsis |
Sibling taxa | ||
Synonyms | A. greggii, A. jonesii, A. obovata var. tuberata | A. hastata subsp. patula, A. hastata var. patula, Teutiopsis patula |
Name authority | Moquin-Tandon: Chenop. Monogr. Enum., 61. (1840) | Linnaeus: Sp. Pl. 2: 1053. (1753) |
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