Atriplex patula |
Atriplex lindleyi |
|
---|---|---|
common orache, halberd-leaf orache, spear orach, spear orache, spear oracle, spear saltbush, spear saltweed, spearscal e, spearscale orache |
Lindley's saltbush |
|
Habit | Herbs, monoecious or subdioecious, (1.5–)3–9(–15) dm. | Herbs, erect or suffrutescent perennial, 1.5–4 dm, woody at base. |
Stems | mostly erect and branched, branches green, obtusely angled or striate, glabrate. |
terete, finely white-mealy when young. |
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. |
alternate, petiolate proximally, becoming sessile distally, crowded; blade oblanceolate or proximal rhombic, 10–20(–30) × 3–15 mm, base cuneate or attenuate, margin entire to repand-denticulate, apex acute to obtuse, scurfy. |
Flowers | compact or interrupted spiciform or paniculiform clusters. |
|
Staminate flowers | mostly 5-merous. |
in axillary glomerules, in short axillary spikes or terminal spikes. |
Pistillate flowers | axillary, solitary or few and clustered below staminate. |
|
Seeds | dimorphic: brown, 2.5–3(–3.5) mm wide, or black, 1–2 mm wide; radicle of brown seeds subbasal to median, antrorse. |
dimorphic: dark reddish brown, 1.5 mm wide, or black, slightly smaller; radicle basal, horizontal. |
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 sessile, bordered by narrow horizontal wing or acutely angled, broadly turbinate or hemispheric, united except at minute apical tips, 6–12 mm, spongy and inflated at maturity, flattened at summit. |
2n | = 36. |
|
Atriplex patula |
Atriplex lindleyi |
|
Phenology | Flowering summer–fall. | |
Habitat | Widespread ruderal weed of nonsaline substrates such as fields, gardens, and roadsides | Sparingly escaped from cultivation |
Elevation | 0-2100 m (0-6900 ft) | |
Distribution |
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
|
CA; Australia [Introduced in North America] |
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.) |
|
Source | FNA vol. 4, p. 333. | FNA vol. 4, p. 342. |
Parent taxa | Chenopodiaceae > Atriplex > subg. Atriplex > sect. Teutliopsis | Chenopodiaceae > Atriplex > subg. Atriplex > sect. Spongiocarpus |
Sibling taxa | ||
Synonyms | A. hastata subsp. patula, A. hastata var. patula, Teutiopsis patula | A. halimoides |
Name authority | Linnaeus: Sp. Pl. 2: 1053. (1753) | Moquin-Tandon: in A. P. de Candolle and A. L. P. P. de Candolle, Prodr. 13(2): 100. (1849) |
Web links |
|