Atriplex obovata |
Atriplex saccaria |
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broadscale, mound saltbush, New Mexico saltbush, silver saltbush |
sack saltbush, sack saltweed, stalk orach, stalk orache |
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Habit | Subshrubs, dioecious, clump forming, mainly 2–8 dm and as wide, woody at base. | Herbs, erect, forming rounded clumps. | ||||||||
Stems | stiffly erect; branchlets terete. |
mainly 0.5–4(–5) dm; stems usually branched from base, terete, stout, angled; herbage scurfy. |
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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 or proximalmost subopposite, short petiolate or distal ones sessile; petiole 2–5 mm; blade cordate-ovate or subreniform to ovate to deltoid-ovate or oval, mainly 6–40 × 4–30 mm, base truncate to subcordate or broadly cuneate, margin entire or in some subhastately lobed or sometimes undulate-dentate, apex acute to rounded. |
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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. |
usually in fascicles of 1–3 in proximal axils. |
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Seeds | brown, 2.4–2.8 mm. |
brownish to whitish, 1.5–2.3 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 monomorphic or dimorphic, larger ones on stipes (2–)4–8(–15) mm, others sessile, united at base, round-triangular or suborbicular, 4–6 mm, irregularly and coarsely dentate and with ± densely beset with flat, cristate, or hornlike appendages, smaller bracteoles (lacking or rare in var. asterocarpa) in same axils, oblong to cuneate, 3–4 mm, apex truncate, dentate only at summit, faces smooth. |
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Staminate | glomerules in distal axils or in short, naked, terminal (early deciduous) panicles; flowers with 5-parted calyx. |
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2n | = 18. |
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Atriplex obovata |
Atriplex saccaria |
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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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AZ; CO; NM; UT; WY
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Discussion | Varieties 3 (3 in the flora). (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. Saccariae | ||||||||
Sibling taxa | ||||||||||
Subordinate taxa | ||||||||||
Synonyms | A. greggii, A. jonesii, A. obovata var. tuberata | A. truncata var. saccaria, Obione saccaria | ||||||||
Name authority | Moquin-Tandon: Chenop. Monogr. Enum., 61. (1840) | S. Watson: Proc. Amer. Acad. Arts 9: 112. (1874) | ||||||||
Web links |