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• Conservation Status
• Taxonomy
• Physical Description
• Distribution
• Habitat
• Reproduction
• Growth
• Similar Species
• Bibliography
• More Info
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Conservation Status

Uses as Product: Berry/Nut/Seed Product: No • Christmas Tree Product: No • Fodder Product: No • Fuelwood Product: None • Lumber Product: No • Naval Store Product: No • Nursery Stock Product: No • Post Product: No • Protein Potential: Medium • Pulpwood Product: No • Veneer Product: No

Edibility: Palatable Browse Animal: Medium • Palatable Graze Animal: Low • Palatable Human: No • Toxicity: None

Taxonomy

Unambiguous Synonyms:

1. A. lentiformis subsp. breweri (S. Watson) H. M. Hall & Clements
2. A. lentiformis var. breweri (S. Watson) McMinn
3. Atriplex breweri S. Watson
4. Obione lentiformis Torrey in L. Sitgreaves, Rep. Exped. Zuni Colorado Rivers, 169. 1853

Notes:

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

Place of publication: Proc. Amer. Acad. Arts 9:118. 1874

Name verified on 20-Jun-1996 by ARS Systematic Botanists. Last updated: 25-Mar-2003

Physical Description

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.^[1]

Species Atriplex lentiformis:

Shrubs, dioecious or less commonly monoecious, mainly 10-25(-35) dm, as broad or broader, unarmed or rarely so; branchlets terete, commonly puberulent. Leaves persistent, alternate, petiolate; blade gray-green, deltate to rhombic, ovate, or oblong-elliptic, 5-50 × 5-50 mm, base truncate to subhastate, margin entire to repand or subhastately lobed, apex rounded to obtuse, scurfy. Staminate flowers yellow, in clusters 1-2 mm wide, borne in panicles 0.5-5 dm. Pistillate flowers with less complex panicles. Fruiting bracteoles sessile, orbiculate to oval, greatly compressed, mainly 3-4.5 mm and wide, crenulate, apex rounded. Seeds brown, 0.8-1.6 mm wide. 2n = 18. [source]

Materials of big saltbush from the coastal and near coastal regions of California have somewhat broader, merely ovate, rounded leaves, and they have been regarded either at species level as Atriplex breweri S. Watson or at either varietal or subspecific level (see synonymy). The plants intergrade completely in interior situations with typical A. lentiformis, and their recognition at taxonomic level seems superfluous. C. A. Hanson (1962) noted the existence of putative hybrids between A. lentiformis and the herbaceous species A. leucophylla and A. davidsonii. Putative hybrids are also known between this species and A. canescens. [source]

Habit: Subshrub, Shrub • Growth Form: Single Stem • Shape and Orientation: Erect

Flowers: Flower Color: Yellow • Flower Conspicuous: No

Seeds: Seed per Pound: 801310 • Seed Spread Rate: Slow • Seedling Vigor: Low • Fruit/Seed Abundance: High • Fruit/Seed Color: Brown • Fruit/Seed Conspicuous: No • Cold Stratification Required: No

Foliage: Foliage Color: Gray-Green • Foliage Porosity Summer: Dense • Foliage Porosity Winter: Moderate • Foliage Texture: Coarse • Fall Conspicuous: No • Leaf Retention: No

Distribution

Range and Population

North America

Native: .

Habitat

Saline to essentially non-saline drainages, stream and canal banks, roadsides, warm desert shrub, saltbush, and riparian communities; 70-1000 m^[2].

Reproduction

Duration: Perennial • Coppice Potential: No • Progagated by Bulbs: No • Propagated by Bare Root: Yes • Propagated by Container: Yes • Propagated by Corms: No • Propagated by Cuttings: No • Propagated by Seed: Yes • Propagated by Sod: No • Propagated by Sprigs: No • Propagated by Tubers: No • Fruit/Seed Period Begin: Summer • Fruit/Seed Period End: Fall • Fruit/Seed Persistence: No • Fruit/Seed Persistence: No

Growth

Culture: Space 4-6' apart.

Soil: Adapted to Medium Textured: Adapted to Medium Textured Soils • Adapted to Coarse Textured Soils: No • Anaerobic Tolerance: None • Salinity Tolerance: High • CaCO3 Tolerance: High • Minimum pH: 7.0 • Maximum pH: 10.0 • Fertility Requirement: Medium

Sunlight: Sun Exposure: Full Sun. • Shade Tolerance: Intolerant

Moisture: Drought Tolerance: High • Minimum Precipitation: 6 • Maximum Precipitation: 10 • Moisture Use: Medium

Temperature: Minimum Temperature (F): -8 • Minimum Frost Free Days: 150 • Cold Hardiness: 8b, 9a, 9b, 10a, 10b. (map)

Similar Species

Members of the genus Atriplex:

There are approximately 1,039 species, subspecies, varieties, forms, and cultivars in this genus. Here are just 100 of them: A. acanthocarpa pringlei · A. acanthocarpa stewartii · A. acutibractea whyallensis · A. barclayana dilatata · A. barclayana lurida · A. barclayana magdalenae · A. barclayana sonorae · A. barclayana typica · A. canescens aptera · A. canescens garretti · A. canescens linearis · A. canescens macropoda · A. canescens typica · A. cinerea cinerea · A. cinerea eucinerea · A. cinerea globulosa · A. cinerea humilis · A. cinerea incrassata · A. cinerea rhagodioides · A. cordobensis grandibracteata · A. elegans fasciculata · A. elegans typica · A. farinosa keniensis · A. glauca ifniensis · A. griffithii stocksii · A. lentiformis griffithsii · A. lentiformis typica · A. lindleyi quadripartita · A. nitens aucheri · A. nummularia erosa · A. nummularia eu-nummularia · A. nuttalli buxifolia · A. nuttalli cuneata · A. nuttalli falcata · A. nuttalli gardneri · A. nuttalli tridentata · A. nuttallii typica · A. paludosa eu-paludosa · A. paludosa graciliflora · A. paludosa tridentata · A. patula alaskensis · A. patula glabriuscula · A. patula litoralis · A. patula littoralis · A. patula obtusa · A. patula typica · A. patula zosteraefolia · A. pentandra arenaria · A. pentandra confinis · A. pentandra muricata · A. pentandra typica · A. prostrata calotheca · A. prostrata deltoidea · A. prostrata polonica · A. rosea arenaria · A. rosea tarraconensis · A. tataricus tornabenii · A. velutinella levibracteata · A. velutinella tomentosa · A. velutinella velutinella · A. abata · A. abbreviata · A. acadiensis (Maritime Saltbush) · A. acanthocarpa (Armed Saltbush) · A. acanthocarpa acanthocarpa (Parish's Glasswort) · A. acanthocarpa coahuilensis · A. acanthocarpa subsp. coahuilensis · A. acanthocarpa subsp. pringlei · A. acanthocarpa subsp. stewartii · A. accaria · A. acuminata · A. acuminata f. integrifolia · A. acuminata f. orbicularis · A. acuminata f. parvibracteata · A. acuminata f. roseocarpa · A. acuminata f. subsimplex · A. acuminata f. unicolor · A. acutibractea · A. acutibractea acutibractea · A. acutibractea karoniensis · A. acutibractea subsp. acutibractea · A. acutibractea subsp. karoniensis · A. acutibractea subsp. whyallensis · A. acutibractea var. acutibracta · A. acutiloba · A. acutiloba var. acutiloba · A. acutiloba var. eu-acutiloba · A. acutiloba var. velutinelliformis · A. aerdleyae · A. agrestis · A. alaschanica · A. alaskensis (Alaska Orache) · A. alba · A. albicans · A. aldamae · A. alexandrina · A. almeriensis · A. altaica · A. amanus · A. amarantoides

Bibliography

• Bassett, I. J., C. W. Crompton, J. McNeill, and P. M. Taschereau. 1983. The Genus Atriplex (Chenopodiaceae) in Canada. Ottawa. [Agricu. Canada Monogr. 31.]
• Beatley, J. C. 1976. Vascular plants of the Nevada test site and central-southern Nevada. (F NevTestS)
• Brown, G. D. 1956. Taxonomy of American Atriplex. Amer. Midl. Naturalist 55: 199-210.
• Englert, J. M. et al. 1999–. USDA-NRCS Improved conservation plant materials released by NRCS and cooperators. (NRCS Cons Pl Mat)
• FNA Editorial Committee. 1993–. Flora of North America. (F NAmer)
• Hall, H. M. and F. E. Clements. 1923. The phylogenetic method in taxonomy: The North American species of Artemisia, Chrysothamnus, and Atriplex. Publ. Carnegie Inst. Wash. 326.
• Hanson, C. A. 1962. Perennial Atriplex of Utah and the Northern Deserts. M.S. thesis. Brigham Young University.
• Hickman, J. C., ed. 1993. The Jepson manual: Higher plants of California. (F CalifJep)
• Kearney, T. H. & R. H. Peebles. 1969. Arizona flora, ed. 2. (F Ariz)
• Liberty Hyde Bailey Hortorium. 1976. Hortus third. (Hortus 3)
• McNeill, J., I. J. Bassett, C. W. Crompton, and P. M. Taschereau. 1983. Taxonomic and nomenclatural notes on Atriplex L. (Chenopodiaceae). Taxon 32: 549-556.
• Munz, P. A. & D. D. Keck. 1959. A California flora. (F CalifMunz)
• Munz, P. A. 1974. A flora of southern California. (F SCalif)
• St. John, H. 1973. List and summary of the flowering plants in the Hawaiian islands. (L Hawaii)
• Taschereau, P. M. 1972. Taxonomy and distribution of Atriplex species in Nova Scotia. Canad. J. Bot. 50: 1571-1594.
• Turesson, G. 1925. Studies in the genus Atriplex. Acta Univ. Lund, n. s. 21: 1-15.
• Welsh, S. L. & C. Crompton. 1995. Names and types in perennial Atriplex Linnaeus (Chenopodiaceae) in North America selectively exclusive of Mexico. Great Basin Naturalist 55:327.
• Welsh, S. L. & G. Moore. 1973. Utah Plants. (Utah Pl)
• Welsh, S. L. 1995. Names and types of perennial Atriplex Linnaeus (Chenopodiaceae) in North America selectively exclusive of Mexico. Great Basin Naturalist 55: 322-334.
• Welsh, S. L. et al. 1987. A Utah flora. Great Basin Naturalist Mem. 9. (F Utah)

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Notes

Contributors:

• "Atriplex lentiformis". in Flora of North America Vol. 4 Page 331, 369, 376, 377, 378. Published by Oxford University Press. Online at EFloras.org.
• Bisby FA, Roskov YR, Orrell TM, Nicolson D, Paglinawan LE, Bailly N, Kirk PM, Bourgoin T, van Hertum J, eds (2008). Species 2000 & ITIS Catalogue of Life: 2008 Annual Checklist Taxonomic Classification. CD-ROM; Species 2000: Reading, U.K.
• Global Biodiversity Information Facility. Accessed February 02, 2008. http://www.gbif.org Mediated distribution data from 10 providers.
• USDA, ARS, National Genetic Resources Program. Germplasm Resources Information Network - (GRIN) [Online Database]. National Germplasm Resources Laboratory, Beltsville, Maryland. URL (April 26, 2008)

Data Sources:

Accessed through GBIF Data Portal February 02, 2008:

• Berkeley Natural History Museums, University and Jepson Herbaria DiGIR provider
• Missouri Botanical Garden, Missouri Botanical Garden
• National Herbarium of New South Wales, NSW herbarium collection
• School of Life Sciences, Arizona State University, Arizona State University Vascular Plant Herbarium
• USDA PLANTS, USDA PLANTS Database
• Utah Valley State College
• , Utah Valley State College Herbarium

Identifiers:

• Integrated Taxonomic Information System (ITIS) Taxonomic Serial Number (TSN): 20543
• Global Biodiversity Information Facility Taxonkey: 248553
• Natural Heritage Network Species Identifier: PDCHE04110
• U.S.D.A. Plant Symbol: ATLE
• Zipcode Zoo Species Identifier: 24405

Footnotes:

1. Stanley L. Welsh "Atriplex". in Flora of North America Vol. 4 Page 226, 260, 268, 293,. Oxford University Press. Online at EFloras.org.
2. "Atriplex lentiformis". in Flora of North America Vol. 4 Page 331, 369, 376, 377, 378. Oxford University Press. Online at EFloras.org.