Atriplex patula |
Atriplex pacifica |
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common orache, halberd-leaf orache, spear orach, spear orache, spear oracle, spear saltbush, spear saltweed, spearscal e, spearscale orache |
Davidson's saltbush, Pacific orach, south coast saltbush, south coast saltscale |
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Habit | Herbs, monoecious or subdioecious, (1.5–)3–9(–15) dm. | Herbs, annual, prostrate, sometimes tinged red, 1–6 dm, forming tangled masses 3–10 dm diam., lightly scurfy when young. |
Stems | mostly erect and branched, branches green, obtusely angled or striate, glabrate. |
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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. |
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. |
Flowers | compact or interrupted spiciform or paniculiform clusters. |
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Staminate flowers | mostly 5-merous. |
in glomerules largely in distal bractless axils, thus short spicate; calyx 5-cleft. |
Pistillate flowers | in proximal axils. |
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Seeds | dimorphic: brown, 2.5–3(–3.5) mm wide, or black, 1–2 mm wide; radicle of brown seeds subbasal to median, antrorse. |
light brown, 0.8–1 mm. |
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 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. |
2n | = 36. |
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Atriplex patula |
Atriplex pacifica |
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Phenology | Flowering summer–fall. | Flowering early spring–fall. |
Habitat | Widespread ruderal weed of nonsaline substrates such as fields, gardens, and roadsides | Mainly on sea bluffs |
Elevation | 0-2100 m (0-6900 ft) | 0-100 m (0-300 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
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CA; Mexico (Baja California)
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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.) |
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.) |
Source | FNA vol. 4, p. 333. | FNA vol. 4, p. 363. |
Parent taxa | Chenopodiaceae > Atriplex > subg. Atriplex > sect. Teutliopsis | Chenopodiaceae > Atriplex > subg. Obione > sect. Obione > subsect. Arenariae |
Sibling taxa | ||
Synonyms | A. hastata subsp. patula, A. hastata var. patula, Teutiopsis patula | Obione microcarpa, A. ramosissima |
Name authority | Linnaeus: Sp. Pl. 2: 1053. (1753) | A. Nelson: Proc. Biol. Soc. Wash., 17: 99. (1904) |
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