Atriplex powellii
Atriplex powellii var. minuticarpa
Powell's orach, Powell's orache, Powell's saltbush, Powell's saltweed
smallbract orach
slender to stout, mainly 1–5(–7) dm, branching almost throughout;
herbage pubescent with scurfy and arachnoid hairs.
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.
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.
of both sexes intermixed in axillary glomerules.
with calyx 4–5-lobed.
5-merous.
greenish, yellowish, or brown, 0.9–2 mm;
radicle superior.
yellow-brown, 0.9–1.2 mm.
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 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.
= 18.
Atriplex powellii
Atriplex powellii var. minuticarpa
Varieties 2 (2 in the flora).
(Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.)
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.)
1. Leaves mostly conspicuously 3-veined, proximalmost with petioles 0.5-2.5(-3.5) cm, distalmost bracteate leaves typically short petiolate; fruiting bracteoles easily discerned at bract bases; plants mostly dioecious; from Alberta and Saskatchewan s to Utah and New Mexico | var. powellii |
1. Leaves inconspicuously, if at all, 3-veined, proximalmost with petioles 0.5-1.5(-2) cm, distalmost bracteate leaves typically sessile; fruiting bracteoles apparent only by removing the subtending bract; plants evidently monoecious; local distribution in se Utah. | var. minuticarpa |
OR
Flora NW
PNW Herbaria
WildflowerSearch
iNaturalist
USDA Plants Database
