Atriplex powellii |
Atriplex argentea |
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Powell's orach, Powell's orache, Powell's saltbush, Powell's saltweed |
maidenhair spleenwort, silver orach, silver orache, silver saltbush, silverscale, silverscale orache, silverscale saltbush, silvery orache |
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Habit | Herbs, dioecious or sometimes sparingly monoecious. | Herbs, simple or freely branched, 0.5–6 dm; branches rather stout, angled, scurfy when young. | ||||||||||||||||||||
Stems | slender to stout, mainly 1–5(–7) dm, branching almost throughout; herbage pubescent with scurfy and arachnoid hairs. |
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Leaves | alternate, proximalmost on petioles (3–)5–30 mm, becoming subsessile or short petiolate distally; blade 3-veined, ovate to rhombic or orbiculate to elliptic, 0.4–5 × 0.2–3 cm, base rounded to cuneate, margin entire, apex acute to obtuse. |
often opposite proximally, petiolate or distal bracteate ones subsessile, blade lance-ovate, lanceolate, deltoid, or cordate, 5–75 × 4–50(–75) mm, base subhastate or obtuse to acute, margin entire or essentially so, sometimes closely repand-dentate, apex obtuse to acute or rounded, scurfy (glabrous). |
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Flowers | in axillary glomerules and terminal, interrupted spikes. |
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Staminate flowers | with calyx 4–5-lobed. |
borne in distal axils, or in short dense spikes or panicles, or intermixed with pistillate, with 4–5-parted calyx. |
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Seeds | greenish, yellowish, or brown, 0.9–2 mm; radicle superior. |
brown, 1.5–2 mm wide; radicle superior or lateral. |
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Fruiting | bracteoles sessile, ovate to oblong or broadly cuneate or pan-duriform, 1.5–5.5 × 1.5–5 mm, thick, united to apex, apex truncate to cuspidate or tridentate, surfaces with thickened processes or rarely smooth. |
bracteoles sessile, subsessile, or stipitate (stipe 0.5–5 mm), cuneate-orbicular, (2.5–)4–11.2 × 2–8.8(–14) mm, margin foliaceous below apex, subentire or dentate to laciniate, face smooth, tuberculate, or crested, processes sometimes again toothed, teeth then aligned with axis of process. |
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2n | = 18. |
= 18, 36, 54. |
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Atriplex powellii |
Atriplex argentea |
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Distribution |
AZ; CO; ID; MT; NE; NM; OR; SD; UT; WY; AB; SK
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AZ; CA; CO; ID; KS; MT; ND; NE; NM; NV; OK; OR; SD; TX; UT; WA; WY; AB; BC; MB; SK; Mexico
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Discussion | Varieties 2 (2 in the flora). (Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.) |
Varieties 5 (5 in the flora). Herbarium materials have tended to represent a catchall for annual specimens not readily assignable to other taxa. Indeed, the distinguishing features of the Atriplex argentea complex are shared singly and often in combination with other taxa. Only by use of combinations of features can this taxon be defined. Those features, with much variation, center around the broad, typically ovate to deltoid leaf blades (often definitely 3-veined) and more-or-less compressed, sessile to subsessile (or short stipitate), fruiting bracteoles on which the marginal processes, or teeth, are mainly aligned with the plane compression, and with the faces quite smooth to variously appendaged. Still some specimens are apparently intermediate with other species, especially with the closely allied A. saccaria, with which it is at least partially sympatric. (Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.) |
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Key |
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Source | FNA vol. 4, p. 352. | FNA vol. 4. | ||||||||||||||||||||
Parent taxa | Chenopodiaceae > Atriplex > subg. Obione > sect. Obione > subsect. Argenteae | Chenopodiaceae > Atriplex > subg. Obione > sect. Obione > subsect. Argenteae | ||||||||||||||||||||
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Subordinate taxa | ||||||||||||||||||||||
Synonyms | Obione powellii | Obione argentea | ||||||||||||||||||||
Name authority | S. Watson: Proc. Amer. Acad. Arts 9: 114. (1874) | Nuttall: Gen. N. Amer. Pl. 1: 198. (1818) | ||||||||||||||||||||
Web links |
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