Atriplex truncata |
Atriplex linearis |
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truncate saltbrush, wedge orach, wedge orache, wedgeleaf orache, wedgescale, wedgescale orache, wedgescale saltbush |
slenderleaf saltbush, thinleaf fourwing saltbush |
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Habit | Herbs, typically erect. | Shrubs dioecious, erect, mainly 10–25 dm; branchlets slender, terete. |
Stems | simple or more commonly branched throughout, mainly 2–8(–10) dm, branches mostly obtusely angled; herbage scurfy, becoming glabrate. |
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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. |
sessile; blade narrowly linear-elliptic, 10–50 × 2–3 mm, firm, revolute, often acute apically. |
Flowers | in axillary glomerules. |
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Staminate flowers | in glomerules mainly in distal axils; sepals 3–5. |
in glomerules borne in slender interrupted mostly paniculate spikes. |
Pistillate flowers | paniculate or in few-flowered axillary glomerules. |
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Seeds | brown, 1–2 mm wide. |
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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 sessile or subsessile, lanceolate to ovate, 4–6 mm, about as wide, each bract with a pair of thin wings 3 mm broad or less, irregularly dentate or laciniate, free tips of bracts much exceeding the wings. |
2n | = 18. |
= 18. |
Atriplex truncata |
Atriplex linearis |
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Phenology | Flowering summer–fall. | Flowering spring–fall. |
Habitat | Saline saltgrass-greasewood-rabbitbrush communities, and other pans or palustrine or lacustrine habitats | Saline deserts, with shadscale, Canotia, Yucca, Opuntia, Rhus, and Eriogonum |
Elevation | 400-2700 m (1300-8900 ft) | 0-800 m (0-2600 ft) |
Distribution |
CA; CO; ID; MT; NV; OR; UT; WA; WY; AB; BC; SK
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AZ; CA; nw Mexico (Baja California, Sonora)
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Discussion | Specimens of Atriplex canescens var. macilenta resemble A. linearis. The taxa have been placed together by some previous workers. Nevertheless, the stems of A. linearis are consistently more slender, the leaves proportionally narrower, and the bracts, though smaller, more closely simulate those of A. canescens. Its diploid nature signals a different evolutionary pathway than that for most of A. canescens, considered broadly. Narrow leaves occur within A. canescens, in the broad sense, sometimes with geographic correlation, sometimes not. (Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.) |
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Source | FNA vol. 4, p. 354. | FNA vol. 4, p. 381. |
Parent taxa | Chenopodiaceae > Atriplex > subg. Obione > sect. Obione > subsect. Truncatae | Chenopodiaceae > Atriplex > subg. Pterochiton |
Sibling taxa | ||
Synonyms | Obione truncata, A. subdecumbens, A. truncata var. stricta | A. canescens subsp. linearis, A. canescens var. linearis |
Name authority | (Torrey ex S. Watson) A. Gray: Proc. Amer. Acad. Arts 8: 398. (1873) | S. Watson: Proc. Amer. Acad. Arts 24: 72. (1889) |
Web links |
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