Atriplex suberecta |
Atriplex elegans |
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peregrine saltbush, sprawling saltbush |
wheelscale, wheelscale orach, wheelscale saltbush, white-scale saltbush |
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Habit | Herbs, annual or perennial, sprawling to ascending, 2–6 dm, branching from densely scaly base. | Herbs, annual (or sometimes perennial?). | ||||
Stems | ascending or procumbent to erect, stramineous or whitish, simple or much branched at base, obtusely angled in age, mainly 0.5–4.5 dm, slender or stout, scurfy to glabrate. |
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Leaves | mostly alternate, shortly petiolate; blade narrow to broadly rhomboid, lanceolate, oblanceolate, or elliptic, (8–)12–35(–42) × 6–16 mm, thin, margin coarsely and irregularly dentate, glabrescent adaxially, somewhat scurfy abaxially. |
many, subsessile or shortly petiolate; blade elliptic to spatulate, oblanceolate, oblong, or obovate, 5–30(–35) × 2–8(–12) mm, base cuneate to attenuate, margin entire or irregularly dentate, densely scurfy abaxially, usually green and glabrate adaxially. |
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Staminate flowers | in subterminal, axillary glomerules. |
with 3–5-parted perianth. |
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Pistillate flowers | in axillary glomerules. |
intermixed with staminate in small axillary clusters. |
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Seeds | circular. |
brown, 1–1.5 mm wide. |
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Fruiting | bracteoles sessile or on the stipe to 0.5 mm, rhombic to obovate, almost flat to convex, 2.2–4 × 1.7–2.7 mm, thin or somewhat thickened in age, connate in basal 1/2, margin entire in basal 1/2, 2–4-toothed in distal 1/2, apex acute, scurfy. |
bracteoles subsessile or short stipitate, orbiculate, strongly compressed, 2–4 mm and as wide, united except at thin margin, margin dentate, terminal teeth often prominent, faces smooth or with cristate appendages (thornberi phase). |
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2n | = 18. |
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Atriplex suberecta |
Atriplex elegans |
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Phenology | Flowering summer–fall. | |||||
Habitat | Disturbed places, with other ruderal weeds | |||||
Elevation | 10-900 m (0-3000 ft) | |||||
Distribution |
CA; UT; Australia; naturalized South Africa [Introduced in North America]
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AZ; CA; NM; NV; TX; UT; n Mexico
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Discussion | Varieties 2 (2 in the 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. 343. | FNA vol. 4, p. 364. | ||||
Parent taxa | Chenopodiaceae > Atriplex > subg. Atriplex > sect. Semibaccata | Chenopodiaceae > Atriplex > subg. Obione > sect. Obione > subsect. Arenariae | ||||
Sibling taxa | ||||||
Subordinate taxa | ||||||
Synonyms | Obione elegans | |||||
Name authority | I. Verdoorn: Bothalia 6: 418, figs. 2, 3(2). (1954) | (Moquin-Tandon) D. Dietrich: Syn. Pl. 5: 537. (1852) | ||||
Web links |