Atriplex parishii |
Atriplex pusilla |
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Parish's brittlescale, Parish's saltbush, Parrish's brittlescale |
dwarf orach, dwarf orache, small scale, smooth saltbush |
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Habit | Herbs, erect or spreading to prostrate, 0.5–3 dm; branches almost horizontal to ascending, fragile, white scurfy or villous (in var. parishii). | Herbs, freely branched, 0.5–2.5 dm; branches spreading to erect, typically suffused with red, slender, sparsely scurfy. | ||||||||||||||||
Leaves | numerous, all or nearly all opposite or almost all alternate, distal ones imbricate or widely separated, tending to recurve; blade lanceolate to ovate, (2–)4–10 × 3–8 mm, rigid, base mostly rounded to cordate, margin entire, gray to white, densely scurfy (or hairy). |
alternate except proximally, not especially numerous; blade elliptic to subelliptic or ovate, 2–12 × 3–6 mm, base acute, rounded, or subcordate, margin entire, gray to almost green scurfy. |
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Flowers | solitary or paired in axils, staminate near branch ends, calyx 5-cleft. |
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Staminate flowers | mostly in distal axils pistillate in proximal axils, or mostly in terminal spike (var. persistens), or partly so (var. subtilis). |
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Seeds | dark brown or almost black, 0.8–1.5 mm. |
brownish, 0.8–1 mm. |
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Fruiting | bracteoles sessile, ovate or rhombic, slightly compressed to thickened, 2–3.5(–4) mm and about as broad or sometimes broader, often subhastately lobed, united 1/2 of length, entire or with few teeth on each side, tuberculate on 1 or both faces. |
bracteoles simulating tiny bracteate leaves, sessile, ovate, compressed, 1–2 × 1 mm, united to apex, abruptly acute to acuminate, entire, faces plane. |
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Atriplex parishii |
Atriplex pusilla |
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Phenology | Flowering Jun–Oct. | |||||||||||||||||
Habitat | Saline substrates in valley bottoms, playas, and along drainages with greasewood, rabbitbrush, shadscale, and sagebrush | |||||||||||||||||
Elevation | 1000-2100 m (3300-6900 ft) | |||||||||||||||||
Distribution |
CA
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CA; NV; OR |
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Discussion | Varieties 5 (5 in the flora). The Atriplex parishii complex consists of a series of microphyllous, low clump-forming annuals apparently disjunct from each other in the Central Valley of California and in near coastal southern California. Often they occupy vernal pools that dry as the season progresses; the substrates in all cases evidently are saline or alkaline, or both. For the most part, the bracteate distal leaves are cordate to rounded at the base, and spreading to spreading-ascending, and the fruiting bracteoles are mainly less than 3.5 mm in length. (Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.) |
Atriplex pusilla is closely similar to, and possibly a near ally of, the geographically disjunct A. parishii complex of the Great Valley of California, which it simulates in all main features. The very tiny fruiting bracteoles, very difficult to discern among the distal bracteate leaves, are characteristic and apparently closely similar only to those of A. parishii var. minuscula. The red stems are almost universal in plants of this species. (Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.) |
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Key |
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Source | FNA vol. 4, p. 356. | FNA vol. 4, p. 356. | ||||||||||||||||
Parent taxa | Chenopodiaceae > Atriplex > subg. Obione > sect. Obione > subsect. Pusillae | Chenopodiaceae > Atriplex > subg. Obione > sect. Obione > subsect. Pusillae | ||||||||||||||||
Sibling taxa | ||||||||||||||||||
Subordinate taxa | ||||||||||||||||||
Synonyms | Obione parishii | Obione pusilla | ||||||||||||||||
Name authority | S. Watson: Proc. Amer. Acad. Arts 17: 377. (1882) | (Torrey) S. Watson: Proc. Amer. Acad. Arts 9: 110. (1874) | ||||||||||||||||
Web links |