Atriplex semibaccata
Atriplex californica
Australian saltbush, berry saltbush, creeping saltbush
California orach, California saltbush
many branched, subterete, 1.5–5 dm, white scurfy when young.
many, alternate, subsessile or short petiolate;
blade 1-veined, spatulate or obovate to oblong or elliptic, mainly 5–30(–40) × 2–9(–12) mm, base attenuate, margin remotely dentate to subentire, apex obtuse.
numerous, often crowded, alternate or proximalmost opposite;
blade narrowly lanceolate to narrowly oblanceolate or elliptic, 4–20 × 1–5 mm, acute at both ends, gray scurfy.
in small, terminal, leaf-bracteate glomerules 1.5 mm wide.
in terminal bracteate spikes, or mixed with pistillate in rather dense axillary clusters, 4-merous.
solitary or in few-flowered clusters in almost all but distalmost leaves.
dimorphic: black, 1.5–1.7 mm, or brown, 2 mm.
dark (black), 1–2 mm.
bracteoles red-fleshy at maturity, sessile or short stipitate, strongly veined, rhombic, convex, 3–6.6 × 2.8–4.5 mm, united at base, margin toothed, apex obtuse to acute.
bracteoles sessile, rhombic-ovate to ovate, scarcely united, 2.5–4 mm, margin entire, acute.
= 18.
Atriplex semibaccata
Atriplex californica
The red-fleshy fruiting bracteoles are diagnostic of this introduced perennial, which is multi-stemmed from an often buried woody caudex.
The Australian species Atriplex muelleri Bentham is somewhat similar. It has been has reported, but not verified, in the North American flora.
(Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.)
H. M. Hall and F. E. Clements (1923) placed great emphasis on the inferior radicle, dioecious habit, and free bracts in stating that there are no close relatives of Atriplex californica in North America. P. C. Standley (1916) regarded the radicle as lateral or superior, not inferior, and placed the species at the beginning of his treatment of the American species. Plants of A. californica, however, form a mirror-image, matched pair with A. watsonii, with which they share habit, leaf conformation, staminate glomerules arranged, at least partially, in terminal interrupted spikes, and Kranz anatomy, but from which they differ in the radicle position, valves of the fruiting bracteoles free beyond the middle, monoecious habit, and mostly alternate leaves. The interpretation by Hall and Clements of radicle position as fundamental is made problematic by the apparent random occurrence of a great many morphologic features from place to place within the genus and often within the taxon. Each character fails individually as having definitive taxonomic importance, making difficult or impossible an ultimately satisfactory phylogenetic arrangement. It is not, however, the character that makes the species, rather, it is the entire syndrome of features that constitutes the taxon. Most certainly A. californica is more closely allied to American taxa than to those from other regions of the world.
(Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.)
CA
WA
Flora NW
PNW Herbaria
WildflowerSearch
iNaturalist
USDA Plants Database
