Flora of North America species comparison

The green links below add additional plants to the comparison table. Blue links lead to other Web sites.
enable glossary links

Atriplex parishii

Atriplex torreyi

Parish's brittlescale, Parish's saltbush, Parrish's brittlescale

Torrey saltbush, Torrey's quailbush, Torrey's saltbush
Habit Herbs, erect or spreading to prostrate, 0.5–3 dm; branches almost horizontal to ascending, fragile, white scurfy or villous (in var. parishii). Shrubs, dioecious, forming broad clumps, mostly (8–)1.2–20(–30) dm; branchlets striately and often sharply angled, glabrous or sparingly puberulent, often becoming bluntly spiny.
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).

persistent, alternate;

petiole 1–4 mm;

blade grayish or greenish, ovate to deltate, rhombic, oval, or lanceolate, typically subhastate, (5–)12–32 × 4–16(–20) mm, base truncate to obtuse, margin entire (rarely toothed), apex obtuse and apiculate.
Staminate flowers

mostly in distal axils pistillate in proximal axils, or mostly in terminal spike (var. persistens), or partly so (var. subtilis).

yellow, in clusters 1 mm wide, borne in panicles mainly 10–30 cm.
Pistillate flowers

in once-branched panicles.
Seeds

dark brown or almost black, 0.8–1.5 mm.

brown, 1–1.9 mm wide.
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 sessile, orbiculate, greatly compressed, 1.3–4 mm, about as wide, margin crenate, apex rounded.

Atriplex parishii

Atriplex torreyi
Distribution
from FNA
CA
[WildflowerSearch map]
[BONAP county map]
from FNA
AZ; CA; NV; UT
[WildflowerSearch map]
[BONAP county map]
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.)

Varieties 2 (2 in the flora).

(Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.)
Key
1. Fruiting bracteoles persistent, ± thickened and/or tuberculate on 1 or both faces
→ 2
1. Fruiting bracteoles deciduous, compressed, faces smooth or tuberculate
→ 3
2. Stems, even in inflorescences, mainly over 1.5 mm thick; staminate flowers borne mainly in terminal spikes; fruiting bracteoles 2.5-3.5(-4) mm; Colusa, Glenn, Merced, Solano, Stanislaus, and Tulare counties.
var. persistens
2. Stems all or at least above, filiform, less than 1.5 mm thick; staminate flowers borne mainly in axillary glomerules, only sometimes somewhat spicate; fruiting bracteoles 2.4-2.8 mm; Fresno, Kings, Kern, Madera, and Tulare counties
var. subtilis
3. Plants with elongate slender hairs in inflorescences; foliose bracts of inflorescence spreading, tips ± recurved; plants of Los Angeles (or Orange), Riverside, and San Diego counties
var. parishii
3. Plants merely scurfy in inflorescences; foliose bracts of inflorescence spreading-ascending, tips not or not especially recurved
→ 4
4. Leaves all or mainly opposite, 3-7 mm; fruiting bracteoles with appendages not in rows, on abaxial surface only; Glenn, Solano, and Yolo counties
var. depressa
4. Leaves all or mainly alternate, 4-10 mm; fruiting bracteoles with faces smooth; Tulare and Kern counties
var. minuscula
1. Fruiting bracteoles mainly 1.3-3.8 × 2-4.6 mm, orbiculate to subreniform in outline; petiole 2-4 mm; rather broad distribution, but not of Cochise County, Arizona
var. torreyi
1. Fruiting bracteoles mainly 3-4 × 5-6 mm, subreniform; petiole 1-2 mm; Cochise County, Arizona
var. griffithsii
Source FNA vol. 4, p. 356. FNA vol. 4, p. 378.
Parent taxa Chenopodiaceae > Atriplex > subg. Obione > sect. Obione > subsect. Pusillae Chenopodiaceae > Atriplex > subg. Pterochiton
Sibling taxa
A. acanthocarpa, A. amnicola, A. argentea, A. californica, A. canescens, A. confertifolia, A. cordulata, A. coronata, A. corrugata, A. coulteri, A. covillei, A. dioica, A. elegans, A. fruticulosa, A. gardneri, A. garrettii, A. glabriuscula, A. gmelinii, A. graciliflora, A. heterosperma, A. holocarpa, A. hortensis, A. hymenelytra, A. joaquiniana, A. klebergorum, A. laciniata, A. lentiformis, A. leucophylla, A. lindleyi, A. linearis, A. littoralis, A. matamorensis, A. mucronata, A. nudicaulis, A. nummularia, A. oblongifolia, A. obovata, A. pacifica, A. parryi, A. patula, A. pentandra, A. phyllostegia, A. pleiantha, A. polycarpa, A. powellii, A. prostrata, A. pusilla, A. rosea, A. saccaria, A. semibaccata, A. serenana, A. spinifera, A. suberecta, A. suckleyi, A. tatarica, A. torreyi, A. truncata, A. tularensis, A. watsonii, A. wolfii, A. wrightii
A. acanthocarpa, A. amnicola, A. argentea, A. californica, A. canescens, A. confertifolia, A. cordulata, A. coronata, A. corrugata, A. coulteri, A. covillei, A. dioica, A. elegans, A. fruticulosa, A. gardneri, A. garrettii, A. glabriuscula, A. gmelinii, A. graciliflora, A. heterosperma, A. holocarpa, A. hortensis, A. hymenelytra, A. joaquiniana, A. klebergorum, A. laciniata, A. lentiformis, A. leucophylla, A. lindleyi, A. linearis, A. littoralis, A. matamorensis, A. mucronata, A. nudicaulis, A. nummularia, A. oblongifolia, A. obovata, A. pacifica, A. parishii, A. parryi, A. patula, A. pentandra, A. phyllostegia, A. pleiantha, A. polycarpa, A. powellii, A. prostrata, A. pusilla, A. rosea, A. saccaria, A. semibaccata, A. serenana, A. spinifera, A. suberecta, A. suckleyi, A. tatarica, A. truncata, A. tularensis, A. watsonii, A. wolfii, A. wrightii
Subordinate taxa
A. parishii var. depressa, A. parishii var. minuscula, A. parishii var. parishii, A. parishii var. persistens, A. parishii var. subtilis
A. torreyi var. griffithsii, A. torreyi var. torreyi
Synonyms Obione parishii Obione torreyi, A. lentiformis subsp. torreyi, A. lentiformis var. torreyi
Name authority S. Watson: Proc. Amer. Acad. Arts 17: 377. (1882) (S. Watson) S. Watson: Proc. Amer. Acad. Arts 9: 119. (1874)
Web links 
Unless otherwise noted, all data comes from the online version of the Flora of North America, who have made most of their content available via a Creative Commons license (CC BY 4.0).



Type/paste one or more Latin names into the boxes above; matching taxa will show up below the box as you type. You can use the up/down arrow keys to move through the list.

(If the plant you're looking for doesn't show up in the auto-complete list, that means it either isn't described in Flora of North America yet, or it's listed under a synonym. And please note that Flora of North America is still missing several plant families, including Fabaceae, Apiaceae, Boraginaceae, and Polemoniaceae.)

Choose a data source: Flora of North America

The species comparison tool is brought to you by:
Northwest Wildflowers