Atriplex patula |
Atriplex tularensis |
|
---|---|---|
common orache, halberd-leaf orache, spear orach, spear orache, spear oracle, spear saltbush, spear saltweed, spearscal e, spearscale orache |
Bakersfield smallscale, Tulare orach, Tulare saltbush |
|
Habit | Herbs, monoecious or subdioecious, (1.5–)3–9(–15) dm. | Herbs, erect, simple or sparingly branched, 1.5–4(–10) dm, white scurfy. |
Stems | mostly erect and branched, branches green, obtusely angled or striate, glabrate. |
aging red, terete or obscurely angled, brittle. |
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 or proximalmost opposite; blade lanceolate to ovate, 6–20 × 4–8 mm, base rounded, margin entire, apex acute to acuminate, gray scurfy. |
Flowers | compact or interrupted spiciform or paniculiform clusters. |
|
Staminate flowers | mostly 5-merous. |
in small axillary dense glomerules, 4-merous. |
Pistillate flowers | solitary or in small axillary clusters, below or mixed with 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. |
dark brown, 1–1.2 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 sessile, rhombic-ovate, acute or acuminate, 2.5–3.5 × 2.2–3 mm, united to middle, thin margin toothed, faces plane, scurfy. |
2n | = 36. |
|
Atriplex patula |
Atriplex tularensis |
|
Phenology | Flowering summer–fall. | Flowering summer–fall. |
Habitat | Widespread ruderal weed of nonsaline substrates such as fields, gardens, and roadsides | Alkaline plains, edges of alkali sink |
Elevation | 0-2100 m (0-6900 ft) | 90-200 m (300-700 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 |
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.) |
Of conservation concern. H. M. Hall and F. E. Clements (1923) discussed the relationship of this plant to Atriplex cordulata, noting that, “A. tularensis is a much more slender plant, the leaves are narrower in proportion to their length,” and tapering to the base, never at all cordate. They noted further, that “The fruiting bracts are sometimes very similar in shape, but those of tularensis typically end in an abrupt acute tooth not present in cordulata and both bract and seed are always smaller.” Because of its small fruiting bracteoles it was placed within the Pusillae by P. C. Standley (1916). The erect stature, coupled with distinctive spreading-ascending and stiff (at least in dried material) leaves, and foliose bracts apparently distinguish A. tularensis from A. coronata. (Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.) |
Source | FNA vol. 4, p. 333. | FNA vol. 4, p. 359. |
Parent taxa | Chenopodiaceae > Atriplex > subg. Atriplex > sect. Teutliopsis | Chenopodiaceae > Atriplex > subg. Obione > sect. Obione > subsect. Pusillae |
Sibling taxa | ||
Synonyms | A. hastata subsp. patula, A. hastata var. patula, Teutiopsis patula | A. cordulata var. tularensis, Obione tularensis |
Name authority | Linnaeus: Sp. Pl. 2: 1053. (1753) | Coville: Contr. U.S. Natl. Herb. 4: 182, plate 19. (1893) |
Web links |
|