Atriplex obovata
Atriplex tatarica
broadscale, mound saltbush, New Mexico saltbush, silver saltbush
Tatarian orach, Tatarian orache
stiffly erect;
branchlets terete.
with branches divaricate or ascending, terete or obtusely angled, 2–10(–15) dm, sparsely scurfy when young.
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 the proximalmost opposite), long petiolate becoming nearly sessile distally, blade ovate to triangular, 15–50(–60) × 10–40 mm, base subhastate or cuneate, margin deeply or shallowly sinuate-dentate with acute or obtuse teeth, apex acute or obtuse, distalmost bracteate blades becoming entire and linear or oblong-linear.
yellow, in clusters 2–3 mm wide, borne in panicles 6–30 cm.
in glomerules borne in slender, naked or sparingly bracteate (at base), mostly interrupted simple or paniculate spikes, calyx 5-cleft.
in small, very numerous glomerules in axils of elongated, terminal leafy-bracteate spikes or finally paniculate.
fascicled in distal axils.
brown, 2.4–2.8 mm.
brown, 1.5–2 mm;
radicle inferior, ascending.
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 strongly 3-veined and reticulate, sessile or short stipitate, ovate-rhombic or subflabelliform, 4–8 × 3–7 mm, moderately compressed, united from narrowed base to middle, margin broad, foliaceous, coarsely dentate, indurate at maturity, faces tuberculate or smooth.
Atriplex obovata
Atriplex tatarica
H. M. Hall and F. E. Clements (1923) treated Atriplex tatarica at specific level with the above distribution (as an introduced ballast plant of rare occurrence), but did not recognize the closely similar A. laciniata, which is currently the species recognized for coastal eastern America. They evidently interpreted A. tatarica to include A. lampa Gillies as identified by P. C. Standley (1916). Atriplex lampa is a shrubby species from South America and does not figure in consideration of North American taxa. Atriplex tatarica includes a complex of forms and varieties in Flora URSS (M. M. Iljin 1936). In Flora Europaea (P. Aellen 1964b) A. tatarica and A. laciniata are separated in the key by the glomerules of A. tatarica being borne in terminal, leafless, often long panicles, whereas those of A. laciniata are borne axillary or in leafy clusters. The species differ otherwise in stature, A. laciniata being a dwarf plant up to 30 cm and with small leaves, A. tatarica being a robust annual up to 150 cm, and with large leaves. The illustration by Hall and Clements (fig. 38) shows a plant with leafy panicle.
Atriplex tatarica has been ignored by H. A. Gleason and A. Cronquist (1991) and by all other authors of floras covering the northeastern United States.
(Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.)
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