Atriplex semibaccata |
Atriplex lentiformis |
|
---|---|---|
Australian saltbush, berry saltbush, creeping saltbush |
big saltbrush, big saltbush, quail bush |
|
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 or less commonly monoecious, mainly 10–25(–35) dm, as broad or broader, unarmed or rarely so; branchlets terete, commonly puberulent. |
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 gray-green, deltate to rhombic, ovate, or oblong-elliptic, 5–50 × 5–50 mm, base truncate to subhastate, margin entire to repand or subhastately lobed, apex rounded to obtuse, scurfy. |
Staminate flowers | in small, terminal, leaf-bracteate glomerules 1.5 mm wide. |
yellow, in clusters 1–2 mm wide, borne in panicles 0.5–5 dm. |
Pistillate flowers | solitary or in few-flowered clusters in almost all but distalmost leaves. |
with less complex panicles. |
Seeds | dimorphic: black, 1.5–1.7 mm, or brown, 2 mm. |
brown, 0.8–1.6 mm wide. |
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, orbiculate to oval, greatly compressed, mainly 3–4.5 mm and wide, crenulate, apex rounded. |
2n | = 18. |
= 18. |
Atriplex semibaccata |
Atriplex lentiformis |
|
Phenology | Flowering spring–early winter. | Flowering spring–fall. |
Habitat | Saline waste places, along roads and sidewalks, in marshes, in various plant communities | Saline to essentially non-saline drainages, stream and canal banks, roadsides, warm desert shrub, saltbush, and riparian communities |
Elevation | 10-1000 m (0-3300 ft) | 70-1000 m (200-3300 ft) |
Distribution |
AZ; CA; DC; NM; NV; TX; UT; WA; Australia [Introduced in North America]
|
AZ; CA; NV; UT; Mexico
|
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.) |
Materials of big saltbush from the coastal and near coastal regions of California have somewhat broader, merely ovate, rounded leaves, and they have been regarded either at species level as Atriplex breweri S. Watson or at either varietal or subspecific level (see synonymy). The plants intergrade completely in interior situations with typical A. lentiformis, and their recognition at taxonomic level seems superfluous. C. A. Hanson (1962) noted the existence of putative hybrids between A. lentiformis and the herbaceous species A. leucophylla and A. davidsonii. Putative hybrids are also known between this species and A. canescens. (Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.) |
Source | FNA vol. 4, p. 343. | FNA vol. 4, p. 377. |
Parent taxa | Chenopodiaceae > Atriplex > subg. Atriplex > sect. Semibaccata | Chenopodiaceae > Atriplex > subg. Pterochiton |
Sibling taxa | ||
Synonyms | A. flagellaris | Obione lentiformis, A. breweri, A. lentiformis subsp. breweri, A. lentiformis var. breweri |
Name authority | R. Brown: Prodr., 406. (1810) | (Torrey) S. Watson: Proc. Amer. Acad. Arts 9: 118. (1874) |
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