Flora of North America species comparison

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Atriplex patula

Atriplex gardneri

common orache, halberd-leaf orache, spear orach, spear orache, spear oracle, spear saltbush, spear saltweed, spearscal e, spearscale orache

Gardner's orache, Gardner's sagebrush, Gardner's saltbrush, Gardner's saltbush, Nuttall's saltbush
Habit Herbs, monoecious or subdioecious, (1.5–)3–9(–15) dm. Shrubs or subshrubs, dioecious or monoecious, 1–10 dm, unarmed.
Stems

mostly erect and branched, branches green, obtusely angled or striate, glabrate.

prostrate to ascending, or less commonly erect.
Leaves

alternate except the proximalmost, petiolate;

blade green on both sides, rhombic-lanceolate to lanceolate, oblong, or narrowly lance-oblong or hastate-ovate, 25–120 × 3–40(–75) mm, entire or toothed, proximal ones broadly cuneate or sometimes hastate subbasally with obliquely antrorse basal lobes, distal cauline leaves lanceolate and entire.

± persistent, alternate or opposite to subopposite (especially proximally), sessile to petiolate;

blade linear to oblanceolate, obovate, spatulate, or orbiculate, 5–55 × 2–25 mm, base cuneate, margin entire (rarely dentate), apex retuse to obtuse or rounded.
Flowers

compact or interrupted spiciform or paniculiform clusters.

Staminate flowers

mostly 5-merous.

yellow or brown, in numerous clusters 2–4 mm wide, in spikes or panicles 2–30 cm.
Pistillate flowers

in spikes or panicles to 30 cm.
Seeds

dimorphic: brown, 2.5–3(–3.5) mm wide, or black, 1–2 mm wide;

radicle of brown seeds subbasal to median, antrorse.

tan or brown, 1.5–2.5 mm wide.
Fruiting

bracteoles green becoming black, rhombic to rhombic-triangular, or ovate-rhombic, compressed, ± uniformly sized, 2–7(–20) mm, base mostly hastate, acute, margin united almost to middle, entire or sparingly toothed, surfaces tuberculate.

bracteoles 2–9 × 2–9 mm, bearing tubercles or wings or tubercles aligned in 4 rows or rarely smooth, apex toothed and usually with 2 or more lateral teeth.
2n

= 36.

Atriplex patula

Atriplex gardneri
Phenology Flowering summer–fall.
Habitat Widespread ruderal weed of nonsaline substrates such as fields, gardens, and roadsides
Elevation 0-2100 m (0-6900 ft)
Distribution
from FNA
AK; AL; CA; CO; DC; DE; IA; ID; IL; IN; MA; MD; ME; MI; MO; MT; NC; ND; NH; NV; NY; OH; PA; RI; SD; UT; VA; VT; WI; WY; AB; BC; MB; NB; NF; NS; ON; QC; SK; YT; Europe; Asia; n Africa
[WildflowerSearch map]
[BONAP county map]
from FNA
AZ; CA; CO; ID; MT; ND; NE; NM; NV; OR; SD; UT; WA; WY; AB; MB; SK; Mexico
[WildflowerSearch map]
[BONAP county map]
Discussion

Atriplex patula appears to have been a rather recent introduction in North America from Eurasia, not arriving perhaps until sometime in the early to mid-eighteenth century. It simulates depauperate specimens of A. dioica, A. glabriuscula, and other similar species when leaves are reduced to a near-linear profile. Such specimens are difficult if not impossible to assign to any of the species.

(Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.)

Varieties 7 (7 in the flora).

This is a widely distributed complex of intergrading genotypes of great phenotypic plasticity. The members occur commonly in fine-textured saline substrates in much of the western Great Plains and in the Intermountain Region. Diploids, triploids, tetraploids, and hexaploids (and higher polyploids, all multiples of the base number 9) are known within the complex, and hybrids are known not only between the constituents but with the other woody species which they contact, i.e., Atriplex canescens, A. confertifolia, and A. corrugata. Indeed, a case can be made for treating both A. gardneri and A. canescens within an expanded A. canescens. They are regarded here as forming two intergrading complexes, with some of the constituent varieties placed equally well within either of the species aggregations. The treatment essentially follows the alignment of taxa suggested by C. A. Hanson (1962), with the exception that they are reduced to varietal status and var. bonnevillensis and var. aptera are placed within the A. gardneri phase and not with A. canescens.

(Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.)
Key
1. Fruiting bracteoles with 4 lateral wings or rows of tubercles; staminate flowers yellow or tan to brown; w Utah, e Nevada, and the w Great Plains
→ 2
1. Fruiting bracteoles lacking lateral wings, tubercles, when present, often ± aligned; staminate flowers dark brown or yellow, but if yellow; different or various distribution
→ 3
2. Staminate flowers mainly tan to brown; Great Basin
var. bonnevillensis
2. Staminate flowers mainly yellow; w Great Plains
var. aptera
3. Lower leaves opposite or subopposite; stems usually prostrate to ascending; from the Four Corners region n to Canada, and e to Manitoba, North Dakota, South Dakota, Nebraska and n Colorado
→ 4
3. Lower leaves alternate; stems often ascending to erect; various distribution
→ 5
4. Leaves mainly 1-2.5 cm wide, grayish green; bracteoles 5-9 mm wide, densely tuberculate; Uinta and Navajo basins, Utah, Colo rado, New Mexico
var. cuneata
4. Leaves mainly 0.5-1.2 cm wide, green; bracteoles 2-5 mm wide, not tuberculate or the tubercles very short; ne Utah, n to Canada and w Great Plains
var. gardneri
5. Staminate flowers mostly brown; fruiting bracteoles tapering to an acuminate apex, with apical teeth united 1/2 of length, lacking lateral teeth; Great Basin e to ne Utah, s Idaho, w Oregon, and e Washington
var. falcata
5. Staminate flowers mostly yellow; fruiting bracteoles with apex either not acuminate or truncate, the apical teeth free, subtended by lateral teeth; various distribution
→ 6
6. Leaves mainly 5-15 times longer than wide; pistillate flowers in spikes; Grand County, Utah
var. welshii
6. Leaves mainly less than 5 times longer than wide, or if longer then of different distribution; pistillate flowers in panicles; Great Basin e to Wyoming and e Utah (and nw Arizona)
var. utahensis
Source FNA vol. 4, p. 333. FNA vol. 4.
Parent taxa Chenopodiaceae > Atriplex > subg. Atriplex > sect. Teutliopsis 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. parishii, A. parryi, 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. 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. torreyi, A. truncata, A. tularensis, A. watsonii, A. wolfii, A. wrightii
Subordinate taxa
A. gardneri var. aptera, A. gardneri var. bonnevillensis, A. gardneri var. cuneata, A. gardneri var. falcata, A. gardneri var. gardneri, A. gardneri var. utahensis, A. gardneri var. welshii
Synonyms A. hastata subsp. patula, A. hastata var. patula, Teutiopsis patula Obione gardneri, A. nuttallii subsp. gardneri, A. nuttallii var. gardneri
Name authority Linnaeus: Sp. Pl. 2: 1053. (1753) (Moquin-Tandon) D. Dietrich: Syn. Pl. 5: 537. (1852)
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).



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