Flora of North America species comparison

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Atriplex powellii var. minuticarpa
Photo is of parent taxon

smallbract orach
Habit Herbs, monoecious, (0.5–)1–4.5 dm.
Leaves

on petioles 0.3–1.5(–2) cm proximally, becoming sessile distally, blade inconspicuously 3-veined, deltoid-ovate to orbicular-ovate or cordate-ovate, 5–20(–30) mm and as wide, base broadly cuneate to subcordate, apex acute to shortly acuminate, scurfy.
Flowers

of both sexes intermixed in axillary glomerules.
Staminate flowers

5-merous.
Seeds

yellow-brown, 0.9–1.2 mm.
Fruiting

bracteoles ovate-oblong or oval to obovate, 1.5–2.5 × 1–2.5 mm, subentire to tridentate apically, median tooth largest, lateral lobes often rounded and sometimes constricted basally, giving an overall violin shape, sometimes slenderly appendaged marginally and bicristate on at least 1 face, but typically unappendaged on faces.

Atriplex powellii var. minuticarpa
Phenology Flowering spring–fall.
Habitat Tununk and Blue Gate members Mancos Shale Formation and on Morrison Formation, and likely on other fine-textured saline substrates, with mat-atriplex, greasewood, rabbitbrush, and shadscale communities
Elevation 1200-1400 m (3900-4600 ft)
Distribution
from FNA
UT
Discussion

This entity is completely within the distribution of var. powellii in southeast Utah, where it occurs on the fine-textured saline and seleniferous silts and clays of exposed Jurassic and Cretaceous strata. The habits of growth of the two taxa are essentially identical, and the shape of both the foliage and bracteate leaves is essentially the same. The fruiting bracteoles of var. minuticarpa, though small, occasionally bear finger-like surficial appendages and share the rounded lateral lobes marginal to the terminal cusp and violin shape with var. powellii. This small-bracteolate plant evidently occupies a much more limited set of ecological circumstances than its near ally.

(Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.)
Source FNA vol. 4, p. 353.
Parent taxa Chenopodiaceae > Atriplex > subg. Obione > sect. Obione > subsect. Argenteae > Atriplex powellii
Sibling taxa
A. powellii var. powellii
Synonyms A. minuticarpa
Name authority (Stutz & G. L. Chu) S. L. Welsh: Rhodora 102: 421. (2001)
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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