Atriplex semibaccata |
Atriplex tatarica |
|
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Australian saltbush, berry saltbush, creeping saltbush |
Tatarian orach, Tatarian orache |
|
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, much branched, forming tangled or spreading masses. |
Stems | with branches divaricate or ascending, terete or obtusely angled, 2–10(–15) dm, sparsely scurfy when young. |
|
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 (or the proximalmost opposite), long petiolate becoming nearly sessile distally, blade ovate to triangular, 15–50(–60) × 10–40 mm, base subhastate or cuneate, margin deeply or shallowly sinuate-dentate with acute or obtuse teeth, apex acute or obtuse, distalmost bracteate blades becoming entire and linear or oblong-linear. |
Staminate flowers | in small, terminal, leaf-bracteate glomerules 1.5 mm wide. |
in glomerules borne in slender, naked or sparingly bracteate (at base), mostly interrupted simple or paniculate spikes, calyx 5-cleft. |
Pistillate flowers | solitary or in few-flowered clusters in almost all but distalmost leaves. |
fascicled in distal axils. |
Seeds | dimorphic: black, 1.5–1.7 mm, or brown, 2 mm. |
brown, 1.5–2 mm; radicle inferior, ascending. |
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 strongly 3-veined and reticulate, sessile or short stipitate, ovate-rhombic or subflabelliform, 4–8 × 3–7 mm, moderately compressed, united from narrowed base to middle, margin broad, foliaceous, coarsely dentate, indurate at maturity, faces tuberculate or smooth. |
2n | = 18. |
|
Atriplex semibaccata |
Atriplex tatarica |
|
Phenology | Flowering spring–early winter. | Flowering late summer–fall. |
Habitat | Saline waste places, along roads and sidewalks, in marshes, in various plant communities | Atlantic and Gulf coasts, ballast and waste grounds |
Elevation | 10-1000 m (0-3300 ft) | 0-50 m (0-200 ft) |
Distribution |
AZ; CA; DC; NM; NV; TX; UT; WA; Australia [Introduced in North America]
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AL; CT; FL; MA; NH; NJ; PA; Europe [Introduced in North America] |
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.) |
H. M. Hall and F. E. Clements (1923) treated Atriplex tatarica at specific level with the above distribution (as an introduced ballast plant of rare occurrence), but did not recognize the closely similar A. laciniata, which is currently the species recognized for coastal eastern America. They evidently interpreted A. tatarica to include A. lampa Gillies as identified by P. C. Standley (1916). Atriplex lampa is a shrubby species from South America and does not figure in consideration of North American taxa. Atriplex tatarica includes a complex of forms and varieties in Flora URSS (M. M. Iljin 1936). In Flora Europaea (P. Aellen 1964b) A. tatarica and A. laciniata are separated in the key by the glomerules of A. tatarica being borne in terminal, leafless, often long panicles, whereas those of A. laciniata are borne axillary or in leafy clusters. The species differ otherwise in stature, A. laciniata being a dwarf plant up to 30 cm and with small leaves, A. tatarica being a robust annual up to 150 cm, and with large leaves. The illustration by Hall and Clements (fig. 38) shows a plant with leafy panicle. Atriplex tatarica has been ignored by H. A. Gleason and A. Cronquist (1991) and by all other authors of floras covering the northeastern United States. (Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.) |
Source | FNA vol. 4, p. 343. | FNA vol. 4, p. 341. |
Parent taxa | Chenopodiaceae > Atriplex > subg. Atriplex > sect. Semibaccata | Chenopodiaceae > Atriplex > subg. Atriplex > sect. Sclerocalymma |
Sibling taxa | ||
Synonyms | A. flagellaris | |
Name authority | R. Brown: Prodr., 406. (1810) | Linnaeus: Sp. Pl. 2: 1053. (1753) |
Web links |