Atriplex saccaria |
Atriplex tatarica |
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sack saltbush, sack saltweed, stalk orach, stalk orache |
Tatarian orach, Tatarian orache |
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Habit | Herbs, erect, forming rounded clumps. | Herbs, much branched, forming tangled or spreading masses. | ||||||||
Stems | mainly 0.5–4(–5) dm; stems usually branched from base, terete, stout, angled; herbage scurfy. |
with branches divaricate or ascending, terete or obtusely angled, 2–10(–15) dm, sparsely scurfy when young. |
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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 (or the proximalmost opposite), long petiolate becoming nearly sessile distally, blade ovate to triangular, 15–50(–60) × 10–40 mm, base subhastate or cuneate, margin deeply or shallowly sinuate-dentate with acute or obtuse teeth, apex acute or obtuse, distalmost bracteate blades becoming entire and linear or oblong-linear. |
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Staminate flowers | in glomerules borne in slender, naked or sparingly bracteate (at base), mostly interrupted simple or paniculate spikes, calyx 5-cleft. |
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Pistillate flowers | usually in fascicles of 1–3 in proximal axils. |
fascicled in distal axils. |
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Seeds | brownish to whitish, 1.5–2.3 mm. |
brown, 1.5–2 mm; radicle inferior, ascending. |
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Staminate | glomerules in distal axils or in short, naked, terminal (early deciduous) panicles; flowers with 5-parted calyx. |
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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 strongly 3-veined and reticulate, sessile or short stipitate, ovate-rhombic or subflabelliform, 4–8 × 3–7 mm, moderately compressed, united from narrowed base to middle, margin broad, foliaceous, coarsely dentate, indurate at maturity, faces tuberculate or smooth. |
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2n | = 18. |
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Atriplex saccaria |
Atriplex tatarica |
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Phenology | Flowering late summer–fall. | |||||||||
Habitat | Atlantic and Gulf coasts, ballast and waste grounds | |||||||||
Elevation | 0-50 m (0-200 ft) | |||||||||
Distribution |
AZ; CO; NM; UT; WY
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AL; CT; FL; MA; NH; NJ; PA; Europe [Introduced in North America] |
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Discussion | Varieties 3 (3 in the flora). (Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.) |
H. M. Hall and F. E. Clements (1923) treated Atriplex tatarica at specific level with the above distribution (as an introduced ballast plant of rare occurrence), but did not recognize the closely similar A. laciniata, which is currently the species recognized for coastal eastern America. They evidently interpreted A. tatarica to include A. lampa Gillies as identified by P. C. Standley (1916). Atriplex lampa is a shrubby species from South America and does not figure in consideration of North American taxa. Atriplex tatarica includes a complex of forms and varieties in Flora URSS (M. M. Iljin 1936). In Flora Europaea (P. Aellen 1964b) A. tatarica and A. laciniata are separated in the key by the glomerules of A. tatarica being borne in terminal, leafless, often long panicles, whereas those of A. laciniata are borne axillary or in leafy clusters. The species differ otherwise in stature, A. laciniata being a dwarf plant up to 30 cm and with small leaves, A. tatarica being a robust annual up to 150 cm, and with large leaves. The illustration by Hall and Clements (fig. 38) shows a plant with leafy panicle. Atriplex tatarica has been ignored by H. A. Gleason and A. Cronquist (1991) and by all other authors of floras covering the northeastern United States. (Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.) |
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Key |
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Source | FNA vol. 4. | FNA vol. 4, p. 341. | ||||||||
Parent taxa | Chenopodiaceae > Atriplex > subg. Obione > sect. Obione > subsect. Saccariae | Chenopodiaceae > Atriplex > subg. Atriplex > sect. Sclerocalymma | ||||||||
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Subordinate taxa | ||||||||||
Synonyms | A. truncata var. saccaria, Obione saccaria | |||||||||
Name authority | S. Watson: Proc. Amer. Acad. Arts 9: 112. (1874) | Linnaeus: Sp. Pl. 2: 1053. (1753) | ||||||||
Web links |