Atriplex truncata |
Atriplex klebergorum |
|
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truncate saltbrush, wedge orach, wedge orache, wedgeleaf orache, wedgescale, wedgescale orache, wedgescale saltbush |
Kleberg orach, Kleberg's saltbush |
|
Habit | Herbs, typically erect. | Herbs, with ligneous vertical taproot 5–9 mm thick; bark pale. |
Stems | simple or more commonly branched throughout, mainly 2–8(–10) dm, branches mostly obtusely angled; herbage scurfy, becoming glabrate. |
erect, diffuse; branches alternate, numerous, horizontal or distally ascending, terete, 1.5–4 dm, densely white farinose when young, glabrate in age; bark becoming pale brownish white and flaky; internodes mostly shorter than 1(–2.4) cm. |
Leaves | alternate or proximalmost opposite, short petiolate proximally, sessile and often cordate-clasping distally; blade ovate to deltoid or oval, 4–30(–40) × 3–30 mm, base truncate or subhastate to rounded, margin entire or dentate, apex acute to obtuse. |
alternate, proximalmost subopposite, sessile; blade ovate-deltoid, 0.5–1.5(–2.5) × 5–12(–15) mm, rather firm and flat, base rounded, truncate, or slightly clasping, margin entire or toothed, apex acute, very densely canescent-farinose with a greenish yellow tinge. |
Flowers | in axillary glomerules. |
sessile, axillary, inconspicuous, mostly in leafy lateral branches with extremely short internodes, arising toward tips of secondary branches. |
Staminate flowers | in glomerules mainly in distal axils; sepals 3–5. |
in most distal axils, 2 mm wide; sepals 3–5, mostly hyaline, curved elliptic, 1.5–1.7 mm, mucronulate, farinose dorsally. |
Pistillate flowers | densely farinose; bracteoles adnate to ovary. |
|
Seeds | brown, 1–2 mm wide. |
dark reddish brown, round-lenticular, 1.5 mm wide, shining; radicle superior. |
Fruiting | bracteoles scarcely compressed, 2–3 mm and as wide, apex truncate to broadly rounded, with 3 (or more) teeth across summit, surfaces smooth (or rarely tuberculate). |
bracteoles variably and irregularly 3–7-cleft, ovate-orbicular, 3.1–4.7 × (3.2–)4–7 mm, typically somewhat constricted below middle, with terminal lobes (1–)1.5–2.8 mm, densely scurfy, faces doubly cristate or smooth. |
2n | = 18. |
|
Atriplex truncata |
Atriplex klebergorum |
|
Phenology | Flowering summer–fall. | Flowering summer. |
Habitat | Saline saltgrass-greasewood-rabbitbrush communities, and other pans or palustrine or lacustrine habitats | In silty or clay loam soils |
Elevation | 400-2700 m (1300-8900 ft) | |
Distribution |
CA; CO; ID; MT; NV; OR; UT; WA; WY; AB; BC; SK
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TX; of conservation concern; near sea level |
Discussion | Of conservation concern. The species was noted by its author as apparently belonging in sect. Argenteae Standley; I concur with that alignment. The overall shape of the bracteoles with a subterminal constriction is reminiscent of those of Atriplex powellii, but the bracteole shape is otherwise distinctive, and the long marginal teeth and occasional elongate cristate processes on the faces are unmatched elsewhere in the Argenteae. (Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.) |
|
Source | FNA vol. 4, p. 354. | FNA vol. 4, p. 353. |
Parent taxa | Chenopodiaceae > Atriplex > subg. Obione > sect. Obione > subsect. Truncatae | Chenopodiaceae > Atriplex > subg. Obione > sect. Obione > subsect. Argenteae |
Sibling taxa | ||
Synonyms | Obione truncata, A. subdecumbens, A. truncata var. stricta | |
Name authority | (Torrey ex S. Watson) A. Gray: Proc. Amer. Acad. Arts 8: 398. (1873) | M. C. Johnston: SouthW. Naturalist 6: 49. (1961) |
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