Atriplex semibaccata |
Atriplex hymenelytra |
|
---|---|---|
Australian saltbush, berry saltbush, creeping saltbush |
desert-holly |
|
Habit | Herbs or subshrubs, perennial, decumbent-prostrate, unarmed, mainly 0.5–8 dm and spreading to 15+ dm wide, unarmed, white scurfy when young; branches not angled. | Shrubs, dioecious, 3–15+ dm, as wide, unarmed. |
Leaves | 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. |
persistent, alternate, petiolate; blade greenish to silvery white, orbiculate to reniform or oval, 10–40 mm, as wide or wider, prominently dentate, teeth to 10 mm, permanently scurfy. |
Staminate flowers | in small, terminal, leaf-bracteate glomerules 1.5 mm wide. |
yellow to purple-brown, in clusters 3–4 mm thick, borne in panicles to 3 cm. |
Pistillate flowers | solitary or in few-flowered clusters in almost all but distalmost leaves. |
borne in inflorescences similar to staminate ones. |
Seeds | dimorphic: black, 1.5–1.7 mm, or brown, 2 mm. |
brown, 2 mm wide; radicle sublateral. |
Fruiting | 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, rather prominently veined, orbiculate to reniform, strongly compressed, 7–10 × 7–10 mm, thin, united at base, margin entire to crenate, glabrous, lacking processes. |
2n | = 18. |
= 18. |
Atriplex semibaccata |
Atriplex hymenelytra |
|
Phenology | Flowering spring–early winter. | Flowering spring. |
Habitat | Saline waste places, along roads and sidewalks, in marshes, in various plant communities | Warm desert shrub, on dry saline alluvial fans and hills |
Elevation | 10-1000 m (0-3300 ft) | 80-1200 m (300-3900 ft) |
Distribution |
AZ; CA; DC; NM; NV; TX; UT; WA; Australia [Introduced in North America]
|
AZ; CA; NV; UT
|
Discussion | 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.) |
Atriplex hymenelytra occurs with saltbush, Larrea-Ambrosia, ephedra, and yucca. This is a handsome, rounded shrub with silvery white foliage, sometimes contrasting strongly with the peculiar substrates on which it grows. Its relationships to other of the southwestern species are recondite, but possibly it is allied to A. confertifolia, with which C. A. Hanson (1962) suggested an affinity. (Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.) |
Source | FNA vol. 4, p. 343. | FNA vol. 4, p. 376. |
Parent taxa | Chenopodiaceae > Atriplex > subg. Atriplex > sect. Semibaccata | Chenopodiaceae > Atriplex > subg. Pterochiton |
Sibling taxa | ||
Synonyms | A. flagellaris | Obione hymenelytra |
Name authority | R. Brown: Prodr., 406. (1810) | (Torrey) S. Watson: Proc. Amer. Acad. Arts 9: 129. (1874) |
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