Atriplex pacifica |
Atriplex argentea |
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Davidson's saltbush, Pacific orach, south coast saltbush, south coast saltscale |
maidenhair spleenwort, silver orach, silver orache, silver saltbush, silverscale, silverscale orache, silverscale saltbush, silvery orache |
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Habit | Herbs, annual, prostrate, sometimes tinged red, 1–6 dm, forming tangled masses 3–10 dm diam., lightly scurfy when young. | Herbs, simple or freely branched, 0.5–6 dm; branches rather stout, angled, scurfy when young. | ||||||||||||||||
Leaves | numerous, sessile or proximal short petiolate; blade greenish adaxially, paler abaxially, oblanceolate to spatulate-elliptic or oval, (3–)5–18 × 1–8 mm, margin entire, more scurfy abaxially. |
often opposite proximally, petiolate or distal bracteate ones subsessile, blade lance-ovate, lanceolate, deltoid, or cordate, 5–75 × 4–50(–75) mm, base subhastate or obtuse to acute, margin entire or essentially so, sometimes closely repand-dentate, apex obtuse to acute or rounded, scurfy (glabrous). |
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Flowers | in axillary glomerules and terminal, interrupted spikes. |
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Staminate flowers | in glomerules largely in distal bractless axils, thus short spicate; calyx 5-cleft. |
borne in distal axils, or in short dense spikes or panicles, or intermixed with pistillate, with 4–5-parted calyx. |
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Pistillate flowers | in proximal axils. |
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Seeds | light brown, 0.8–1 mm. |
brown, 1.5–2 mm wide; radicle superior or lateral. |
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Fruiting | bracteoles subsessile or stipe to 0.3 mm, suborbiculate to obovate, 1–1.5(–2) × 1.1–1.8 mm, united to middle, margin minutely 3–5-toothed at apex, otherwise entire, apex green, faces smooth or rarely tuberculate. |
bracteoles sessile, subsessile, or stipitate (stipe 0.5–5 mm), cuneate-orbicular, (2.5–)4–11.2 × 2–8.8(–14) mm, margin foliaceous below apex, subentire or dentate to laciniate, face smooth, tuberculate, or crested, processes sometimes again toothed, teeth then aligned with axis of process. |
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2n | = 18, 36, 54. |
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Atriplex pacifica |
Atriplex argentea |
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Phenology | Flowering early spring–fall. | |||||||||||||||||
Habitat | Mainly on sea bluffs | |||||||||||||||||
Elevation | 0-100 m (0-300 ft) | |||||||||||||||||
Distribution |
CA; Mexico (Baja California)
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AZ; CA; CO; ID; KS; MT; ND; NE; NM; NV; OK; OR; SD; TX; UT; WA; WY; AB; BC; MB; SK; Mexico
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Discussion | The name Atriplex ramosissima was published by Moquin-Tandon as a synonym, based on a name on a specimen in Nuttall’s herbarium. (Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.) |
Varieties 5 (5 in the flora). Herbarium materials have tended to represent a catchall for annual specimens not readily assignable to other taxa. Indeed, the distinguishing features of the Atriplex argentea complex are shared singly and often in combination with other taxa. Only by use of combinations of features can this taxon be defined. Those features, with much variation, center around the broad, typically ovate to deltoid leaf blades (often definitely 3-veined) and more-or-less compressed, sessile to subsessile (or short stipitate), fruiting bracteoles on which the marginal processes, or teeth, are mainly aligned with the plane compression, and with the faces quite smooth to variously appendaged. Still some specimens are apparently intermediate with other species, especially with the closely allied A. saccaria, with which it is at least partially sympatric. (Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.) |
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Key |
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Source | FNA vol. 4, p. 363. | FNA vol. 4. | ||||||||||||||||
Parent taxa | Chenopodiaceae > Atriplex > subg. Obione > sect. Obione > subsect. Arenariae | Chenopodiaceae > Atriplex > subg. Obione > sect. Obione > subsect. Argenteae | ||||||||||||||||
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Subordinate taxa | ||||||||||||||||||
Synonyms | Obione microcarpa, A. ramosissima | Obione argentea | ||||||||||||||||
Name authority | A. Nelson: Proc. Biol. Soc. Wash., 17: 99. (1904) | Nuttall: Gen. N. Amer. Pl. 1: 198. (1818) | ||||||||||||||||
Web links |
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