Atriplex serenana
Atriplex watsonii
bracteate orach, bractscale, saltscale, stinking orach
Watson's orach, Watson's saltbush
forming tangled mats 1–3 m across, woody at base, white 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.
numerous, mostly opposite;
blade broadly elliptic to ovate, 8–25 mm, often surpassing internodes, thick and fleshy (when fresh), margin entire, apex acutish, white scurfy.
in glomerules in terminal spikes or panicles 3–20 cm, or reduced to solitary, rounded, terminal glomerule.
in large glomerules in naked, interrupted terminal spikes;
calyx 5-cleft.
in small clusters, axillary.
in small, axillary clusters.
brown, 1–1.3(–1.5) mm.
light brown, 1–1.5 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 short stipitate, ovate to rhombic, united to beyond middle, 4–8 mm, margin entire to erose, faces plane.
= 18.
Atriplex serenana
Atriplex watsonii
Varieties 2 (2 in the flora).
(Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.)
Atriplex watsonii is a sprawling plant that exhibits much variation in leaf size, as attested in the clearly staminate type collection, Palmer 334, wherein the range in size is from 5–25 × 2.5–11 mm wide. Although typically placed adjacent to A. matamorensis, the other dioecious perennial, the two taxa are probably not closely allied. The broader-leaved phases simulate closely A. leucophylla, with which it is sometimes confused, and perhaps the relationship lies in that direction, but it closely simulates A. californica, with which it is probably most closely allied.
(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
