Atriplex saccaria |
Atriplex klebergorum |
|||||||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
sack saltbush, sack saltweed, stalk orach, stalk orache |
Kleberg orach, Kleberg's saltbush |
|||||||||
Habit | Herbs, erect, forming rounded clumps. | Herbs, with ligneous vertical taproot 5–9 mm thick; bark pale. | ||||||||
Stems | mainly 0.5–4(–5) dm; stems usually branched from base, terete, stout, angled; herbage scurfy. |
erect, diffuse; branches alternate, numerous, horizontal or distally ascending, terete, 1.5–4 dm, densely white farinose when young, glabrate in age; bark becoming pale brownish white and flaky; internodes mostly shorter than 1(–2.4) cm. |
||||||||
Leaves | alternate or proximalmost subopposite, short petiolate or distal ones sessile; petiole 2–5 mm; blade cordate-ovate or subreniform to ovate to deltoid-ovate or oval, mainly 6–40 × 4–30 mm, base truncate to subcordate or broadly cuneate, margin entire or in some subhastately lobed or sometimes undulate-dentate, apex acute to rounded. |
alternate, proximalmost subopposite, sessile; blade ovate-deltoid, 0.5–1.5(–2.5) × 5–12(–15) mm, rather firm and flat, base rounded, truncate, or slightly clasping, margin entire or toothed, apex acute, very densely canescent-farinose with a greenish yellow tinge. |
||||||||
Flowers | sessile, axillary, inconspicuous, mostly in leafy lateral branches with extremely short internodes, arising toward tips of secondary branches. |
|||||||||
Staminate flowers | in most distal axils, 2 mm wide; sepals 3–5, mostly hyaline, curved elliptic, 1.5–1.7 mm, mucronulate, farinose dorsally. |
|||||||||
Pistillate flowers | usually in fascicles of 1–3 in proximal axils. |
densely farinose; bracteoles adnate to ovary. |
||||||||
Seeds | brownish to whitish, 1.5–2.3 mm. |
dark reddish brown, round-lenticular, 1.5 mm wide, shining; radicle superior. |
||||||||
Staminate | glomerules in distal axils or in short, naked, terminal (early deciduous) panicles; flowers with 5-parted calyx. |
|||||||||
Fruiting | bracteoles monomorphic or dimorphic, larger ones on stipes (2–)4–8(–15) mm, others sessile, united at base, round-triangular or suborbicular, 4–6 mm, irregularly and coarsely dentate and with ± densely beset with flat, cristate, or hornlike appendages, smaller bracteoles (lacking or rare in var. asterocarpa) in same axils, oblong to cuneate, 3–4 mm, apex truncate, dentate only at summit, faces smooth. |
bracteoles variably and irregularly 3–7-cleft, ovate-orbicular, 3.1–4.7 × (3.2–)4–7 mm, typically somewhat constricted below middle, with terminal lobes (1–)1.5–2.8 mm, densely scurfy, faces doubly cristate or smooth. |
||||||||
2n | = 18. |
|||||||||
Atriplex saccaria |
Atriplex klebergorum |
|||||||||
Phenology | Flowering summer. | |||||||||
Habitat | In silty or clay loam soils | |||||||||
Distribution |
AZ; CO; NM; UT; WY
|
TX; of conservation concern; near sea level |
||||||||
Discussion | Varieties 3 (3 in the flora). (Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.) |
Of conservation concern. The species was noted by its author as apparently belonging in sect. Argenteae Standley; I concur with that alignment. The overall shape of the bracteoles with a subterminal constriction is reminiscent of those of Atriplex powellii, but the bracteole shape is otherwise distinctive, and the long marginal teeth and occasional elongate cristate processes on the faces are unmatched elsewhere in the Argenteae. (Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.) |
||||||||
Key |
|
|||||||||
Source | FNA vol. 4. | FNA vol. 4, p. 353. | ||||||||
Parent taxa | Chenopodiaceae > Atriplex > subg. Obione > sect. Obione > subsect. Saccariae | Chenopodiaceae > Atriplex > subg. Obione > sect. Obione > subsect. Argenteae | ||||||||
Sibling taxa | ||||||||||
Subordinate taxa | ||||||||||
Synonyms | A. truncata var. saccaria, Obione saccaria | |||||||||
Name authority | S. Watson: Proc. Amer. Acad. Arts 9: 112. (1874) | M. C. Johnston: SouthW. Naturalist 6: 49. (1961) | ||||||||
Web links |