Atriplex serenana |
Atriplex semibaccata |
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bracteate orach, bractscale, saltscale, stinking orach |
Australian saltbush, berry saltbush, creeping saltbush |
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Habit | Herbs, annual, erect or sprawling, usually branched often forming tangled mats to 10 × (3–)5–20 dm, ascending branches sparsely scurfy. | 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. | ||||
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. |
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. |
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Staminate flowers | in glomerules in terminal spikes or panicles 3–20 cm, or reduced to solitary, rounded, terminal glomerule. |
in small, terminal, leaf-bracteate glomerules 1.5 mm wide. |
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Pistillate flower(s) | in small clusters, axillary. |
solitary or in few-flowered clusters in almost all but distalmost leaves. |
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Seeds | brown, 1–1.3(–1.5) mm. |
dimorphic: black, 1.5–1.7 mm, or brown, 2 mm. |
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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 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. |
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2n | = 18. |
= 18. |
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Atriplex serenana |
Atriplex semibaccata |
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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 |
CA; NV; nw Mexico
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AZ; CA; DC; NM; NV; TX; UT; WA; Australia [Introduced in North America]
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Discussion | Varieties 2 (2 in the flora). (Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.) |
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.) |
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Key |
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Source | FNA vol. 4, p. 361. | FNA vol. 4, p. 343. | ||||
Parent taxa | Chenopodiaceae > Atriplex > subg. Obione > sect. Obione > subsect. Arenariae | Chenopodiaceae > Atriplex > subg. Atriplex > sect. Semibaccata | ||||
Sibling taxa | ||||||
Subordinate taxa | ||||||
Synonyms | A. flagellaris | |||||
Name authority | A. Nelson ex Abrams: Fl. Los Angeles, 128. (1904) | R. Brown: Prodr., 406. (1810) | ||||
Web links |