Atriplex semibaccata |
Atriplex patula |
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Australian saltbush, berry saltbush, creeping saltbush |
common orache, halberd-leaf orache, spear orach, spear orache, spear oracle, spear saltbush, spear saltweed, spearscal e, spearscale orache |
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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. | Herbs, monoecious or subdioecious, (1.5–)3–9(–15) dm. |
Stems | mostly erect and branched, branches green, obtusely angled or striate, glabrate. |
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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. |
alternate except the proximalmost, petiolate; blade green on both sides, rhombic-lanceolate to lanceolate, oblong, or narrowly lance-oblong or hastate-ovate, 25–120 × 3–40(–75) mm, entire or toothed, proximal ones broadly cuneate or sometimes hastate subbasally with obliquely antrorse basal lobes, distal cauline leaves lanceolate and entire. |
Flowers | compact or interrupted spiciform or paniculiform clusters. |
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Staminate flowers | in small, terminal, leaf-bracteate glomerules 1.5 mm wide. |
mostly 5-merous. |
Pistillate flowers | solitary or in few-flowered clusters in almost all but distalmost leaves. |
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Seeds | dimorphic: black, 1.5–1.7 mm, or brown, 2 mm. |
dimorphic: brown, 2.5–3(–3.5) mm wide, or black, 1–2 mm wide; radicle of brown seeds subbasal to median, antrorse. |
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 green becoming black, rhombic to rhombic-triangular, or ovate-rhombic, compressed, ± uniformly sized, 2–7(–20) mm, base mostly hastate, acute, margin united almost to middle, entire or sparingly toothed, surfaces tuberculate. |
2n | = 18. |
= 36. |
Atriplex semibaccata |
Atriplex patula |
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Phenology | Flowering spring–early winter. | Flowering summer–fall. |
Habitat | Saline waste places, along roads and sidewalks, in marshes, in various plant communities | Widespread ruderal weed of nonsaline substrates such as fields, gardens, and roadsides |
Elevation | 10-1000 m (0-3300 ft) | 0-2100 m (0-6900 ft) |
Distribution |
AZ; CA; DC; NM; NV; TX; UT; WA; Australia [Introduced in North America]
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AK; AL; CA; CO; DC; DE; IA; ID; IL; IN; MA; MD; ME; MI; MO; MT; NC; ND; NH; NV; NY; OH; PA; RI; SD; UT; VA; VT; WI; WY; AB; BC; MB; NB; NF; NS; ON; QC; SK; YT; Europe; Asia; n Africa
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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 patula appears to have been a rather recent introduction in North America from Eurasia, not arriving perhaps until sometime in the early to mid-eighteenth century. It simulates depauperate specimens of A. dioica, A. glabriuscula, and other similar species when leaves are reduced to a near-linear profile. Such specimens are difficult if not impossible to assign to any of the species. (Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.) |
Source | FNA vol. 4, p. 343. | FNA vol. 4, p. 333. |
Parent taxa | Chenopodiaceae > Atriplex > subg. Atriplex > sect. Semibaccata | Chenopodiaceae > Atriplex > subg. Atriplex > sect. Teutliopsis |
Sibling taxa | ||
Synonyms | A. flagellaris | A. hastata subsp. patula, A. hastata var. patula, Teutiopsis patula |
Name authority | R. Brown: Prodr., 406. (1810) | Linnaeus: Sp. Pl. 2: 1053. (1753) |
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