Atriplex powellii
Atriplex watsonii
Powell's orach, Powell's orache, Powell's saltbush, Powell's saltweed
Watson's orach, Watson's saltbush
slender to stout, mainly 1–5(–7) dm, branching almost throughout;
herbage pubescent with scurfy and arachnoid hairs.
forming tangled mats 1–3 m across, woody at base, white scurfy.
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.
numerous, mostly opposite;
blade broadly elliptic to ovate, 8–25 mm, often surpassing internodes, thick and fleshy (when fresh), margin entire, apex acutish, white scurfy.
with calyx 4–5-lobed.
in large glomerules in naked, interrupted terminal spikes;
calyx 5-cleft.
in small, axillary clusters.
greenish, yellowish, or brown, 0.9–2 mm;
radicle superior.
light brown, 1–1.5 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 sessile or short stipitate, ovate to rhombic, united to beyond middle, 4–8 mm, margin entire to erose, faces plane.
= 18.
Atriplex powellii
Atriplex watsonii
Varieties 2 (2 in the flora).
(Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.)
Atriplex watsonii is a sprawling plant that exhibits much variation in leaf size, as attested in the clearly staminate type collection, Palmer 334, wherein the range in size is from 5–25 × 2.5–11 mm wide. Although typically placed adjacent to A. matamorensis, the other dioecious perennial, the two taxa are probably not closely allied. The broader-leaved phases simulate closely A. leucophylla, with which it is sometimes confused, and perhaps the relationship lies in that direction, but it closely simulates A. californica, with which it is probably most closely allied.
(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
CA
