Atriplex powellii |
Atriplex glabriuscula |
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Powell's orach, Powell's orache, Powell's saltbush, Powell's saltweed |
bract orache, glabrous orach, scotland orache |
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Habit | Herbs, dioecious or sometimes sparingly monoecious. | Herbs, monoecious, prostrate or sprawling, or sometimes erect, branched, (1–)2–10 dm; branches opposite or subopposite. | ||||||||||||
Stems | slender to stout, mainly 1–5(–7) dm, branching almost throughout; herbage pubescent with scurfy and arachnoid hairs. |
green and striped, often blue-green when fresh, weakly ridged, sparsely scurfy to glabrous. |
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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. |
petiole 0.2–2.5(–3.5) cm; blade all entire or some or all triangular or lance-hastate with lobes spreading to antrorse, 5–100 × 3–80 mm, base abruptly to narrowly cuneate, entire or irregularly toothed. |
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Flowers | in loose glomerules, arranged in foliose, interrupted spikes or axillary, terminating stems and branches. |
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Staminate flowers | with calyx 4–5-lobed. |
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Seeds | greenish, yellowish, or brown, 0.9–2 mm; radicle superior. |
dimorphic: brown, 2.5–4 mm wide (often the only ones present), or black, (1.2–)1.5–2.9(–3) mm wide; radicle median, ± antrorse, of brown seed basal and spreading. |
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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. |
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Bracteoles | green, becoming black or reddish to yellow brown, sessile or some short stipitate, venation obscure, ovate-triangular to rhombic-triangular, 5–13 mm, margin united almost to middle, with few irregular teeth or entire, apex abruptly acuminate, faces irregularly muricate, tuberculate, or smooth, inflated, spongy inner layer strongly developed at bracteole base. |
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2n | = 18. |
= 18, 36. |
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Atriplex powellii |
Atriplex glabriuscula |
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Distribution |
AZ; CO; ID; MT; NE; NM; OR; SD; UT; WY; AB; SK
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CT; MA; ME; NH; PA; AB; MB; NB; NS; PE; QC; Europe
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Discussion | Varieties 2 (2 in the flora). (Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.) |
Varieties 3 (3 in the flora). Members of the Atriplex glabriuscula complex occupy saline or brackish marshes and saline coastal strands mainly in the eastern maritime provinces of Canada, with extensions in similar habitats into the northeastern United States. They are seldom, if ever, ruderal weeds and appear to be indigenous or perhaps early introduced in some part from similar European habitats. The constituent taxa have been regarded at specific level (P. M. Taschereau 1972; I. J. Bassett et al. 1983). They are, however, alike in all major morphologic features, and are apparently closely allied. For those who wish to treat them at specific level, the names are supplied in the synonymy. (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. Atriplex > sect. Teutliopsis | ||||||||||||
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Subordinate taxa | ||||||||||||||
Synonyms | Obione powellii | |||||||||||||
Name authority | S. Watson: Proc. Amer. Acad. Arts 9: 114. (1874) | Edmondston: Fl. Shetland, 39. (1845) | ||||||||||||
Web links |