Atriplex semibaccata |
Atriplex linearis |
|
---|---|---|
Australian saltbush, berry saltbush, creeping saltbush |
slenderleaf saltbush, thinleaf fourwing saltbush |
|
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, erect, mainly 10–25 dm; branchlets slender, terete. |
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. |
sessile; blade narrowly linear-elliptic, 10–50 × 2–3 mm, firm, revolute, often acute apically. |
Staminate flowers | in small, terminal, leaf-bracteate glomerules 1.5 mm wide. |
in glomerules borne in slender interrupted mostly paniculate spikes. |
Pistillate flowers | solitary or in few-flowered clusters in almost all but distalmost leaves. |
paniculate or in few-flowered axillary glomerules. |
Seeds | dimorphic: black, 1.5–1.7 mm, or brown, 2 mm. |
|
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 or subsessile, lanceolate to ovate, 4–6 mm, about as wide, each bract with a pair of thin wings 3 mm broad or less, irregularly dentate or laciniate, free tips of bracts much exceeding the wings. |
2n | = 18. |
= 18. |
Atriplex semibaccata |
Atriplex linearis |
|
Phenology | Flowering spring–early winter. | Flowering spring–fall. |
Habitat | Saline waste places, along roads and sidewalks, in marshes, in various plant communities | Saline deserts, with shadscale, Canotia, Yucca, Opuntia, Rhus, and Eriogonum |
Elevation | 10-1000 m (0-3300 ft) | 0-800 m (0-2600 ft) |
Distribution |
AZ; CA; DC; NM; NV; TX; UT; WA; Australia [Introduced in North America]
|
AZ; CA; nw Mexico (Baja California, Sonora)
|
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.) |
Specimens of Atriplex canescens var. macilenta resemble A. linearis. The taxa have been placed together by some previous workers. Nevertheless, the stems of A. linearis are consistently more slender, the leaves proportionally narrower, and the bracts, though smaller, more closely simulate those of A. canescens. Its diploid nature signals a different evolutionary pathway than that for most of A. canescens, considered broadly. Narrow leaves occur within A. canescens, in the broad sense, sometimes with geographic correlation, sometimes not. (Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.) |
Source | FNA vol. 4, p. 343. | FNA vol. 4, p. 381. |
Parent taxa | Chenopodiaceae > Atriplex > subg. Atriplex > sect. Semibaccata | Chenopodiaceae > Atriplex > subg. Pterochiton |
Sibling taxa | ||
Synonyms | A. flagellaris | A. canescens subsp. linearis, A. canescens var. linearis |
Name authority | R. Brown: Prodr., 406. (1810) | S. Watson: Proc. Amer. Acad. Arts 24: 72. (1889) |
Web links |