Atriplex suberecta |
Atriplex hymenelytra |
|
---|---|---|
peregrine saltbush, sprawling saltbush |
desert-holly |
|
Habit | Herbs, annual or perennial, sprawling to ascending, 2–6 dm, branching from densely scaly base. | Shrubs, dioecious, 3–15+ dm, as wide, unarmed. |
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. |
persistent, alternate, petiolate; blade greenish to silvery white, orbiculate to reniform or oval, 10–40 mm, as wide or wider, prominently dentate, teeth to 10 mm, permanently scurfy. |
Staminate flowers | in subterminal, axillary glomerules. |
yellow to purple-brown, in clusters 3–4 mm thick, borne in panicles to 3 cm. |
Pistillate flowers | in axillary glomerules. |
borne in inflorescences similar to staminate ones. |
Seeds | circular. |
brown, 2 mm wide; radicle sublateral. |
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, rather prominently veined, orbiculate to reniform, strongly compressed, 7–10 × 7–10 mm, thin, united at base, margin entire to crenate, glabrous, lacking processes. |
2n | = 18. |
= 18. |
Atriplex suberecta |
Atriplex hymenelytra |
|
Phenology | Flowering summer–fall. | Flowering spring. |
Habitat | Disturbed places, with other ruderal weeds | Warm desert shrub, on dry saline alluvial fans and hills |
Elevation | 10-900 m (0-3000 ft) | 80-1200 m (300-3900 ft) |
Distribution |
CA; UT; Australia; naturalized South Africa [Introduced in North America]
|
AZ; CA; NV; UT
|
Discussion | Atriplex hymenelytra occurs with saltbush, Larrea-Ambrosia, ephedra, and yucca. This is a handsome, rounded shrub with silvery white foliage, sometimes contrasting strongly with the peculiar substrates on which it grows. Its relationships to other of the southwestern species are recondite, but possibly it is allied to A. confertifolia, with which C. A. Hanson (1962) suggested an affinity. (Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.) |
|
Source | FNA vol. 4, p. 343. | FNA vol. 4, p. 376. |
Parent taxa | Chenopodiaceae > Atriplex > subg. Atriplex > sect. Semibaccata | Chenopodiaceae > Atriplex > subg. Pterochiton |
Sibling taxa | ||
Synonyms | Obione hymenelytra | |
Name authority | I. Verdoorn: Bothalia 6: 418, figs. 2, 3(2). (1954) | (Torrey) S. Watson: Proc. Amer. Acad. Arts 9: 129. (1874) |
Web links |