Flora of North America species comparison

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Atriplex lentiformis

bracteate orach, bractscale, saltscale, stinking orach

big saltbrush, big saltbush, quail bush

Habit

Herbs, annual, erect or sprawling, usually branched often forming tangled mats to 10 × (3–)5–20 dm, ascending branches sparsely scurfy.

Shrubs, dioecious or less commonly monoecious, mainly 10–25(–35) dm, as broad or broader, unarmed or rarely so; branchlets terete, commonly puberulent.

Leaves

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.

persistent, alternate, petiolate;

blade gray-green, deltate to rhombic, ovate, or oblong-elliptic, 5–50 × 5–50 mm, base truncate to subhastate, margin entire to repand or subhastately lobed, apex rounded to obtuse, scurfy.

Staminate flowers

in glomerules in terminal spikes or panicles 3–20 cm, or reduced to solitary, rounded, terminal glomerule.

yellow, in clusters 1–2 mm wide, borne in panicles 0.5–5 dm.

Pistillate flower(s)

in small clusters, axillary.

with less complex panicles.

Seeds

brown, 1–1.3(–1.5) mm.

brown, 0.8–1.6 mm wide.

Fruiting

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, orbiculate to oval, greatly compressed, mainly 3–4.5 mm and wide, crenulate, apex rounded.

= 18.

Atriplex serenana

Atriplex lentiformis

Phenology

Flowering spring–fall.

Habitat

Saline to essentially non-saline drainages, stream and canal banks, roadsides, warm desert shrub, saltbush, and riparian communities

Elevation

70-1000 m (200-3300 ft)

Distribution

CA; NV; nw Mexico

[WildflowerSearch map]

[BONAP county map]

AZ; CA; NV; UT; Mexico

[WildflowerSearch map]

[BONAP county map]

Discussion

Varieties 2 (2 in the flora).

(Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.)

Materials of big saltbush from the coastal and near coastal regions of California have somewhat broader, merely ovate, rounded leaves, and they have been regarded either at species level as Atriplex breweri S. Watson or at either varietal or subspecific level (see synonymy). The plants intergrade completely in interior situations with typical A. lentiformis, and their recognition at taxonomic level seems superfluous. C. A. Hanson (1962) noted the existence of putative hybrids between A. lentiformis and the herbaceous species A. leucophylla and A. davidsonii. Putative hybrids are also known between this species and A. canescens.

(Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.)

Key

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

Source

FNA vol. 4, p. 361.

FNA vol. 4, p. 377.

Parent taxa

Chenopodiaceae > Atriplex > subg. Obione > sect. Obione > subsect. Arenariae

Chenopodiaceae > Atriplex > subg. Pterochiton

Sibling taxa

A. acanthocarpa, A. amnicola, A. argentea, A. californica, A. canescens, A. confertifolia, A. cordulata, A. coronata, A. corrugata, A. coulteri, A. covillei, A. dioica, A. elegans, A. fruticulosa, A. gardneri, A. garrettii, A. glabriuscula, A. gmelinii, A. graciliflora, A. heterosperma, A. holocarpa, A. hortensis, A. hymenelytra, A. joaquiniana, A. klebergorum, A. laciniata, A. lentiformis, A. leucophylla, A. lindleyi, A. linearis, A. littoralis, A. matamorensis, A. mucronata, A. nudicaulis, A. nummularia, A. oblongifolia, A. obovata, A. pacifica, A. parishii, A. parryi, A. patula, A. pentandra, A. phyllostegia, A. pleiantha, A. polycarpa, A. powellii, A. prostrata, A. pusilla, A. rosea, A. saccaria, A. semibaccata, A. spinifera, A. suberecta, A. suckleyi, A. tatarica, A. torreyi, A. truncata, A. tularensis, A. watsonii, A. wolfii, A. wrightii

A. acanthocarpa, A. amnicola, A. argentea, A. californica, A. canescens, A. confertifolia, A. cordulata, A. coronata, A. corrugata, A. coulteri, A. covillei, A. dioica, A. elegans, A. fruticulosa, A. gardneri, A. garrettii, A. glabriuscula, A. gmelinii, A. graciliflora, A. heterosperma, A. holocarpa, A. hortensis, A. hymenelytra, A. joaquiniana, A. klebergorum, A. laciniata, A. leucophylla, A. lindleyi, A. linearis, A. littoralis, A. matamorensis, A. mucronata, A. nudicaulis, A. nummularia, A. oblongifolia, A. obovata, A. pacifica, A. parishii, A. parryi, A. patula, A. pentandra, A. phyllostegia, A. pleiantha, A. polycarpa, A. powellii, A. prostrata, A. pusilla, A. rosea, A. saccaria, A. semibaccata, A. serenana, A. spinifera, A. suberecta, A. suckleyi, A. tatarica, A. torreyi, A. truncata, A. tularensis, A. watsonii, A. wolfii, A. wrightii

Subordinate taxa

A. serenana var. davidsonii, A. serenana var. serenana

Synonyms

Obione lentiformis, A. breweri, A. lentiformis subsp. breweri, A. lentiformis var. breweri

Name authority

A. Nelson ex Abrams: Fl. Los Angeles, 128. (1904)

(Torrey) S. Watson: Proc. Amer. Acad. Arts 9: 118. (1874)

Web links

Unless otherwise noted, all data comes from the online version of the Flora of North America, who have made most of their content available via a Creative Commons license (CC BY 4.0).

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