Atriplex semibaccata |
Atriplex serenana |
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Australian saltbush, berry saltbush, creeping saltbush |
bracteate orach, bractscale, saltscale, stinking orach |
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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, annual, erect or sprawling, usually branched often forming tangled mats to 10 × (3–)5–20 dm, ascending branches sparsely scurfy. | ||||
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. |
many, subsessile or very short petiolate; blade subconcolorous, lanceolate to oblong, elliptic, or oval, (8–)10–30(–40) × 3–12(–15) mm, margin sharply dentate to entire. |
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Staminate flowers | in small, terminal, leaf-bracteate glomerules 1.5 mm wide. |
in glomerules in terminal spikes or panicles 3–20 cm, or reduced to solitary, rounded, terminal glomerule. |
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Pistillate flower(s) | solitary or in few-flowered clusters in almost all but distalmost leaves. |
in small clusters, axillary. |
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Seeds | dimorphic: black, 1.5–1.7 mm, or brown, 2 mm. |
brown, 1–1.3(–1.5) mm. |
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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 (stipe to 1 mm), cuneate-orbicular to obovate, somewhat compressed, 2.1–3.5 × (1.7–)2–3.7 mm, united 1/2 of length, margin sharply and often slenderly toothed beyond middle, faces often rather strongly veined, smooth or with 1 or more slender or flattened appendages. |
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2n | = 18. |
= 18. |
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Atriplex semibaccata |
Atriplex serenana |
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Phenology | Flowering spring–early winter. | |||||
Habitat | Saline waste places, along roads and sidewalks, in marshes, in various plant communities | |||||
Elevation | 10-1000 m (0-3300 ft) | |||||
Distribution |
AZ; CA; DC; NM; NV; TX; UT; WA; Australia [Introduced in North America]
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CA; NV; nw Mexico
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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.) |
Varieties 2 (2 in the flora). (Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.) |
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Key |
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Source | FNA vol. 4, p. 343. | FNA vol. 4, p. 361. | ||||
Parent taxa | Chenopodiaceae > Atriplex > subg. Atriplex > sect. Semibaccata | Chenopodiaceae > Atriplex > subg. Obione > sect. Obione > subsect. Arenariae | ||||
Sibling taxa | ||||||
Subordinate taxa | ||||||
Synonyms | A. flagellaris | |||||
Name authority | R. Brown: Prodr., 406. (1810) | A. Nelson ex Abrams: Fl. Los Angeles, 128. (1904) | ||||
Web links |