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Atriplex argentea argentea

(Sack Saltbush)

Interesting Facts

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Common Names

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Common Names in English:

Sack Saltbush, Sack Saltweed, Saltbush, Silver Orach, Silverscale, Silverscale Saltbush, Silverscale Saltweed, Silvery Saltbush, Stalked Orache

Description

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Family Amaranthaceae

Herbs, clambering subshrubs , shrubs , or lianas. Leaves alternate or opposite, entire, exstipulate . Flowers small, bisexual or unisexual , or sterile and reduced, subtended by 1 membranous bract and 2 bracteoles, solitary or aggregated in cymes. Inflorescences elongated or condensed spikes (heads ), racemes , or thyrsoid structures of varying complexity. Bracteoles membranous or scarious . Tepals 3-5, membranous, scarious or subleathery, 1-, 3-, 5-, or 7(-23) -veined. Stamens as many as tepals and opposite these, rarely fewer than tepals; filaments free , united into a cup at base or ± entirely into a tube , filament lobes present or absent, pseudostaminodes present or absent; anthers (1- or) 2-loculed, dorsifixed , introrsely dehiscent . Ovary superior, 1-loculed; ovules 1 to many; style persistent , short and indistinct or long and slender; stigma capitate, penicillate , 2-lobed or forming 2 filiform branches. Fruit a dry utricle or a fleshy capsule, indehiscent, irregularly bursting, or circumscissile. Seeds lenticular , reniform , subglobose, or shortly cylindric , smooth or verruculose .

About 70 genera and 900 species: worldwide; 15 genera (one introduced ) and 44 species (three endemic, 14 introduced) in China.

Morphology of the androecium, perianth (tepals), and the inflorescence has traditionally been used to circumscribe genera and tribes . Pseudostaminodia are interstaminal appendages with variously shaped apices. Filament appendages are the lateral appendages of filaments (one on each side) . The basic structure of the inflorescence is the cyme (branchlets arising from the bracteole axils, the bracteoles serving as bracts for upper flowers), which can be reduced to one flower with two bracteoles and a bract. Units of dispersal vary considerably (capsules opening with lower part persistent, flower and bracteoles falling together, or cymose partial inflorescences breaking off above bract) and can be characteristic for genera. Several genera possess long trichomes serving dispersal at the base of the tepals.[1]

Genus Atriplex

Herbs or shrubs, annual or perennial , monoecious or dioecious, often with bladderlike hairs that collapse to form silvery or scurfy (mealy ) vesture, less often with elongate trichomes . Leaves persistent or tardily deciduous, alternate, partially opposite, or opposite, sessile or petiolate ; blade entire, serrate, or lobed , with venation either of Kranz-type or normal dicotyledonous type, axillary buds inconspicuous or lacking. Inflorescences axillary or terminal ; flowers borne in axillary clusters or glomerules , or in terminal spikes or spicate panicles. Staminate flowers with 3-5-parted calyx, ebracteate ; stamens 3-5. Pistillate flowers lacking perianth, pistil naked, or in few species with (1-) 3-5-lobed perianth, commonly enclosed within pair of foliaceous bracteoles; stigmas 2. Fruiting bracteoles enlarged in fruit, of various shapes and variously connate or not, thickened, and appendaged; pericarp free , tightly enclosed in the fruiting bracteoles. Seeds flattened, mainly vertical ; radicle inferior, lateral , or superior. x = 9.

Species ca. 250: worldwide, mainly in subarctic , temperate , and subtropical regions.

Many species of Atriplex are halophytic, others occupy soils low in dissolved particulates.

Prior to the 1900s, the genus Suckleya was treated within Atriplex, but its obcompressed fruiting bracteoles are quite unlike anything in Atriplex, and the plants were recognized as a distinct genus.[2]

Physical Description

Species Atriplex argentea argentea

Herbs, simple or freely branched, 0.5-6 dm; branches rather stout, angled , scurfy when young. Leaves often opposite proximally, petiolate or distal bracteate ones subsessile , blade lance-ovate, lanceolate, deltoid, or cordate, 5-75 × 4-50(-75) mm, base subhastate or obtuse to acute, margin entire or essentially so, sometimes closely repand-dentate, apex obtuse to acute or rounded , scurfy (glabrous ). Flowers in axillary glomerules and terminal , interrupted spikes. Staminate flowers borne in distal axils, or in short dense spikes or panicles, or intermixed with pistillate , with 4-5-parted calyx. Fruiting bracteoles sessile, subsessile, or stipitate (stipe 0.5-5 mm), cuneate-orbicular, (2.5-) 4-11.2 × 2-8.8 (-14 ) mm, margin foliaceous below apex, subentire or dentate to laciniate , face smooth , tuberculate , or crested , processes sometimes again toothed , teeth then aligned with axis of process . Seeds brown, 1.5-2 mm wide; radicle superior or lateral . 2n = 18, 36, 54. [source]

Herbarium materials have tended to represent a catchall for annual specimens not readily assignable to other taxa. Indeed, the distinguishing features of the Atriplex argentea complex are shared singly and often in combination with other taxa. Only by use of combinations of features can this taxon be defined. Those features, with much variation , center around the broad, typically ovate to deltoid leaf blades (often definitely 3-veined) and more-or-less compressed , sessile to subsessile (or short stipitate), fruiting bracteoles on which the marginal processes, or teeth, are mainly aligned with the plane compression, and with the faces quite smooth to variously appendaged. Still some specimens are apparently intermediate with other species, especially with the closely allied A. saccaria, with which it is at least partially sympatric. [source]

Habit: Forb/herb

Biology

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Reproduction

Duration: Annual , Perennial

Taxonomy

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Notes

Name Status: Accepted Name . Latest taxonomic scrutiny: 15-Mar-2000

Place of publication : Gen. N. Amer. pl. 1:198. 1818

Name verified on 10-May-2004 by ARS Systematic Botanists. Last updated: 11-May-2004

Similar Species

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Members of the genus Atriplex

ZipcodeZoo has pages for 147 species, subspecies, varieties, forms, and cultivars in this genus. Here are just 100 of them:

A. acadiensis (Maritime Saltbush) · A. acanthocarpa (Armed Saltbush) · A. acanthocarpa acanthocarpa (Parish's Glasswort) · A. acanthocarpa subsp. coahuilensis (Tuburcled Saltbush) · A. alaskensis (Alaska Orache) · A. alba (Lambsquarters Goosefoot) · A. ambrosioides (West Indian Goosefoot) · A. aptera (Moundscale) · A. argentea argentea (Sack Saltbush) · A. argentea argentea var. argentea (Silverscale Saltbush) · A. argentea expansa (Silverscale) · A. argentea longitrichoma (Silverscale) · A. argentea typica (Silverscale) · A. argentea var. argentea (Silverscale Saltbush) · A. argentea var. caput-medusae (Stalked Saltbush) · A. argentea var. hillmanii (Hillman's Silverscale Saltbush) · A. argentea subsp. expansa (Silverscale Saltbush) · A. aristata (Sea Foam Flower) · A. asterocarpa (Chinle Saltbush) · A. barclayana (Barclay's Saltbush) · A. bonnevillensis (Bonneville Saltbush) · A. botrys (Jerusalem Oak Goosefoot) · A. californica (California Saltbush) · A. calotheca (Halberdleaf Orach) · A. canescens (Four-Wing Saltbush) · A. canescens var. angustifolia (Fourwing Saltbush) · A. canescens var. canescens (Fourwing Saltbush) · A. canescens var. gigantea (Fourwing Saltbush) · A. canescens var. laciniata (Fourwing Saltbush) · A. canescens var. linearis (Fourwing Saltbush) · A. canescens var. macilenta (Fourwing Saltbush) · A. confertifolia (Shad-Scale Saltbush) · A. cordulata (Heart-Leaf Saltbush) · A. coronata (Crown Saltbush) · A. coronata notatior var. notatior (San Jacinto Valley Crownscale) · A. coronata var. coronata (Crownscale) · A. coronata var. notatior (San Jacinto Valley Crownscale) · A. corrugata (Mat Saltbush) · A. coulteri (Coulter's Saltbush) · A. cristata (Crested Saltbush) · A. cuneata (Castlevalley Saltbush) · A. cuneata cuneata (Castlevalley Saltbush) · A. cuneata introgressa (Castlevalley Saltbush) · A. cuneata subsp. introgressa (Castlevalley Saltbush) · A. depressa (Bittlescale) · A. drymarioides (Seashore Saltbush) · A. eardleyae (Small Saltbush) · A. elegans (Wheel-Scale Saltbush) · A. elegans var. elegans (Wheelscale) · A. elegans var. fasciculata (Wheelscale) · A. elegans var. thornberi (Wheelscale) · A. endolepis (Endolepis) · A. erecticaulis (Erectstem Saltbush) · A. expansa expansa (Silverscale Saltbush) · A. falcata (Sickle Saltbush) · A. franktonii (Frankton's Saltbush) · A. fruticulosa (Ball Saltbush) · A. gardneri (Gardner's Saltbush) · A. garrettii (Garrett Saltbush) · A. glabriuscula (Northeastern Saltbush) · A. gmelinii (Gmelin's Saltbush) · A. graciliflora (Slender-Flower Saltbush) · A. griffithsii (Griffith's Saltbush) · A. halimus (Mediterranean Saltbush) · A. hillmanii (Hillman's Silverscale Saltbush) · A. holocarpa (Pop Saltbush) · A. hortensis (Garden Orach) · A. hortensis var. rubra (Mountain Spinach) · A. hortensis 'Burgundy' (Mountain Spinach) · A. hortensis 'Crimson Plume' (Mountain Spinach) · A. hortensis 'Golden' (Mountain Spinach) · A. hortensis 'Oracle' (Mountain Spinach) · A. hymenelytra (Desert Holly) · A. joaquiniana (San Joaquin Saltbush) · A. johnstonii (Johnson's Saltbush) · A. klebergorum (Kleberg's Saltbush) · A. laciniata (Cut-Leaf Saltbush) · A. lampa (South American Saltbush) · A. lentiformis (Big Saltbush) · A. lentiformis breweri (Big Saltbush) · A. lentiformis lentiformis (Big Saltbush) · A. lentiformis subsp. breweri (Quailbush) · A. leucophylla (Beach Saltbush) · A. lindleyi (Lindley's Saltbush) · A. littoralis (Grassleaf Orache) · A. longipes (Long-Stalked Orache) · A. matamorensis (Matamoros Saltbush) · A. maximowicziana (Maximowicz's Saltbush) · A. micrantha (Two-Scale Orache) · A. minuscula (Lesser Saltbush) · A. minuticarpa (Tununk Saltbush) · A. muelleri (Mueller's Saltbush) · A. multifida (Cutleaf Goosefoot) · A. muralis (Nettle-Leaved Goosefoot) · A. navajoensis (Navajo Saltbush) · A. neomexicana (New Mexico Saltbush) · A. nitens (Hoary Orache) · A. nudicaulis (Baltic Saltbush) · A. nummularia (Bluegreen Saltbush) · A. nuttallii (Nuttall's Saltbush)

More Info

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Further Reading

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Notes

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Contributors

Identifiers

Footnotes

  1. Bojian Bao, Thomas Borsch & Steven E. Clemants "Amaranthaceae". in Flora of China Vol. 5 Page 415. Published by Science Press (Beijing) and Missouri Botanical Garden Press. Online at EFloras.org. [back]
  2. Stanley L. Welsh "Atriplex". in Flora of North America Vol. 4 Page 226, 260, 268, 293,. Oxford University Press. Online at EFloras.org. [back]
Last Revised: 2012-07-27