Atriplex obovata |
Atriplex pleiantha |
|
---|---|---|
broadscale, mound saltbush, New Mexico saltbush, silver saltbush |
four-corners orach |
|
Habit | Subshrubs, dioecious, clump forming, mainly 2–8 dm and as wide, woody at base. | Herbs, branching from base, mainly 0.5–1.5 dm, glabrous or sparingly scurfy. |
Stems | stiffly erect; branchlets terete. |
|
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 to subopposite, petiolate; blade ovate to suborbiculate, 5–18(–20) mm, about as wide, margin entire, apex obtuse to acute. |
Staminate flowers | yellow, in clusters 2–3 mm wide, borne in panicles 6–30 cm. |
in short terminal spikes. |
Pistillate flowers | in small, very numerous glomerules in axils of elongated, terminal leafy-bracteate spikes or finally paniculate. |
|
Seeds | brown, 2.4–2.8 mm. |
falling at maturity, black, 1.5 mm, shining, smooth. |
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 short stipitate, compressed, 3–7 mm wide and about as long, entire; perianth consisting of 5 hyaline, sparsely ciliate scales 1–1.2 mm. |
Atriplex obovata |
Atriplex pleiantha |
|
Phenology | Flowering summer–fall. | Flowering late summer–fall. |
Habitat | Fine-textured substrates, with salt desert shrub and lower pinyon-juniper communities | Salt-desert shrub community |
Elevation | 1500-2000 m (4900-6600 ft) | 1400-1500 m (4600-4900 ft) |
Distribution |
AZ; CO; NM; TX; UT; Mexico
|
AZ; CO; NM; UT |
Source | FNA vol. 4, p. 371. | FNA vol. 4, p. 345. |
Parent taxa | Chenopodiaceae > Atriplex > subg. Pterochiton | Chenopodiaceae > Atriplex > subg. Obione > sect. Pleianthae |
Sibling taxa | ||
Synonyms | A. greggii, A. jonesii, A. obovata var. tuberata | Proatriplex pleiantha |
Name authority | Moquin-Tandon: Chenop. Monogr. Enum., 61. (1840) | W. A. Weber: Madroño 10: 189, figs. 1, 2. (1950) |
Web links |