Atriplex suberecta |
Atriplex holocarpa |
|
---|---|---|
peregrine saltbush, sprawling saltbush |
pop saltbush |
|
Habit | Herbs, annual or perennial, sprawling to ascending, 2–6 dm, branching from densely scaly base. | Herbs, annual or short-lived perennial, 1.5–3 dm, with a hard subligneous base. |
Stems | branching, diffuse or procumbent, softly scurfy-tomentose. |
|
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. |
alternate; petiole to 1/2 as long as blade; blade obovate or rhombic to deltoid, 10–30 mm, base obtuse, margin sinuate to serrate, apex irregularly toothed, acute. |
Flowers | in axillary glomerules, staminate in distal axils surrounded by pistillate flowers, these only and usually few together in most axils, very small and globular at anthesis. |
|
Staminate flowers | in subterminal, axillary glomerules. |
|
Pistillate flowers | in axillary glomerules. |
|
Seeds | circular. |
broadly elliptic; radical lateral, erect. |
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 sessile, obovoid-globular, fused, scarcely compressed, 8–12 mm, of loosely fibrous and spongy consistency, with thin membranous epidermis and thin, inner membrane, opening at summit closed by 2 erect, appressed, entire or 3-toothed valves, apex shortly apiculate, not flattened at top. |
2n | = 18. |
|
Atriplex suberecta |
Atriplex holocarpa |
|
Phenology | Flowering summer–fall. | Flowering summer. |
Habitat | Disturbed places, with other ruderal weeds | Cultivated or weedy |
Elevation | 10-900 m (0-3000 ft) | |
Distribution |
CA; UT; Australia; naturalized South Africa [Introduced in North America]
|
TX; WY; Australia [Introduced in North America] |
Discussion | I have seen no specimens of this species and therefore it is not mapped. H. M. Hall and F. E. Clements (1923) in discussion of the related Atriplex lindleyi (as A. halimoides) noted that it has “been grown in American gardens with the thought of using them as forage plants, but…has [not] been found suitable for general planting. P. G. Wilson (1984) indicated that the species is relatively widespread in Australia, mainly in southern parts, where it grows “often on flood-plains or sandy flats.” (Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.) |
|
Source | FNA vol. 4, p. 343. | FNA vol. 4, p. 342. |
Parent taxa | Chenopodiaceae > Atriplex > subg. Atriplex > sect. Semibaccata | Chenopodiaceae > Atriplex > subg. Atriplex > sect. Spongiocarpus |
Sibling taxa | ||
Name authority | I. Verdoorn: Bothalia 6: 418, figs. 2, 3(2). (1954) | F. Mueller: Rep. Pl. Babbage’s Exped., 19. (1859) |
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