Atriplex serenana
Atriplex coulteri
bracteate orach, bractscale, saltscale, stinking orach
Coulter's orach, Coulter's orache, Coulter's saltbush
frequently tinged with red, much branched, sparsely scurfy.
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.
many, sessile or short petiolate;
blade obovate, oblong, oblanceolate, or elliptic, (5–)7–20 × 1–3(–5) mm, base cuneate, margin entire, apex acute.
in glomerules in terminal spikes or panicles 3–20 cm, or reduced to solitary, rounded, terminal glomerule.
in glomerules in distal axils and short terminal spikes.
in small clusters, axillary.
in small axillary clusters.
brown, 1–1.3(–1.5) mm.
brown, 1.3–1.5 mm.
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.
bracteoles sessile or subsessile, broadly obovate, 2–3 mm and as broad or about as broad, united 1/2 of length, margin free, deeply and sharply dentate, narrowed at summit, faces smooth or sometimes tuberculate.
= 18.
Atriplex serenana
Atriplex coulteri
Varieties 2 (2 in the flora).
(Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.)
Of conservation concern.
Atriplex coulteri is closely allied to the geographically disjunct A. fruticulosa, from which it is said to differ in the compressed, small (2.5–3 mm) versus thickened and larger (3–5 mm) bracts. Specimens of A. fruticulosa, including the type, examined by me have bracteoles compressed-thickened, but hardly “globoid” as stated in the key to the species by H. M. Hall and F. E. Clements (1923). Additional specimens borrowed from California might clarify the situation; otherwise the two species are sufficiently close as to be treated as a single entity.
(Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.)
1. Staminate inflorescence an elongate panicle or spike bearing numerous, beadlike glomerules; fruiting bracteoles ± 1-veined; mainly of central valley and Owens Valley, to w Nevada, also coastal and insu- lar, s California | var. serenana |
1. Staminate inflorescence of solitary, terminal, subglobose glomerule; fruiting bracteoles 3-veined; coastal s California | var. davidsonii |
CA
WildflowerSearch
iNaturalist
USDA Plants Database
