Atriplex glabriuscula var. franktonii

(Taschereau) S. L. Welsh

Rhodora 102: 417. 2001.

Common names: Frankton’s orach
Endemic
Basionym: Atriplex franktonii Taschereau Canad. J. Bot. 50: 1586, figs. 6, 10. 1972
Treatment appears in FNA Volume 4. Treatment on page 339. Mentioned on page 338.

Herbs, prostrate, decumbent, or erect, sparsely branched, 1.5–5 dm; stems green, often red striped, subangular, scurfy. Leaves opposite proximally; petiole (0–) 0.5–2.5 (–3) cm; blade triangular-hastate (or hastate and triangular-acuminate) with pair of broad, spreading or antrorse lobes or smaller, short petiolate or subsessile and lance-hastate to lanceolate or lance-oblong distally, (10–) 15–80 × (3–) 5–65 mm, margin denticulate to entire. Flowers, both staminate and pistillate, in glomerules arranged in interrupted spikes terminal on stems and branches and in axils of distal leaves, lacking leafy bracts except at base. Fruiting bracteoles often reddish becoming brown to black in age, sessile or subsessile, or some axillary ones short stipitate, venation obscure to prominent, triangular-hastate, 3–11 mm, base truncate to subcordate or obtuse, united at base, margin denticulate to laciniate, apex acute to acuminate, faces smooth or with 2 small tubercles. Seeds dimorphic: brown, convex, 2.8–3.6 mm wide, often the only ones present, or black, 1–2 mm. 2n = 18.


Phenology: Flowering late summer–fall.
Habitat: Sandy beaches, often covered with wrack of fucoids and Chondrus
Elevation: 0-50 m

Discussion

Atriplex glabriuscula var. franktonii has been placed in synonymy with A. hastata Linnaeus, i.e., A. prostrata Boucher ex de Candolle, by H. A. Gleason and A. Cronquist (1991), but is evidently more nearly allied to A. glabriuscula within whose range it is completely submersed. It is likewise evidently confined to indigenous salt marsh and beach habitats, unlike the clearly ruderal weedy status of the evidently largely, if not entirely, introduced A. prostrata. P. M. Taschereau (pers. comm.) notes that “the continuous coastal distribution of A. prostrata suggests... that it is native in these saline areas,” but “that the anthropophytic weedy A. prostrata is undoubtedly introduced.”

Selected References

None.

Lower Taxa

None.

No values specified."dm" is not declared as a valid unit of measurement for this property.

subsessile +  and sessile +
reddish becoming brown +  and black +
axillary +
acute +  and acuminate +
Stanley L. Welsh +
(Taschereau) S. L. Welsh +
slippery +
aromatic +
truncate +  and subcordate or obtuse +
Atriplex franktonii +
some +  and entire +
0.5 cm5 mm <br />0.005 m <br /> (10 cm100 mm <br />0.1 m <br />) +
triangular-hastate +
0.3 cm3 mm <br />0.003 m <br /> (8 cm80 mm <br />0.08 m <br />) +
persistent +  and deciduous +
stipitate +, some +  and sessile +
reddish +  and yellow-brown +
ovate-triangular +  and rhombic-triangular +
subopposite +  and opposite +
3-5-parted +
Frankton’s orach +
N.B. +  and N.S. +
0-50 m +
with 2 small tubercles +  and smooth +
smooth +, tuberculate +  and muricate +
inflated +
pistillate +  and staminate +
unisexual +  and bisexual +
not +  and connate +
enlarged +
Sandy beaches, often covered with wrack of fucoids and Chondrus +
bladderlike +
terminal +  and axillary +
deciduous +  and persistent +
antrorse +  and spreading +
entire +  and serrate +
1 cm10 mm <br />0.01 m <br /> (1.5 cm15 mm <br />0.015 m <br />) +
0.3 cm3 mm <br />0.003 m <br /> (0.5 cm5 mm <br />0.005 m <br />) +
1.5 cm15 mm <br />0.015 m <br /> (8 cm80 mm <br />0.08 m <br />) +
antrorse +  and spreading +
denticulate +  and laciniate +
smaller +
broad;5mm;65mm +
inferior +, half-inferior +  and superior +
crassinucellate +  and bitegmic +
campylotropous +
1 +  and single +
subsessile +  and petiolate +
persistent +  and deciduous +
(1-)3-5-lobed +
papery +  and chartaceous +
2.5 cm25 mm <br />0.025 m <br /> (3 cm30 mm <br />0.03 m <br />) +
0.5 cm5 mm <br />0.005 m <br /> (2.5 cm25 mm <br />0.025 m <br />) +
Flowering late summer–fall. +
lateral +, basal +  and inferior +
bulbous +  and taprooted +
fusiform +
fleshy +  and fibrous +
verrucate +  and striate +
black +  and brown +
spreading +  and antrorse +
0.1 cm1 mm <br />0.001 m <br /> (0.2 cm2 mm <br />0.002 m <br />) +
0.28 cm2.8 mm <br />0.0028 m <br /> (0.36 cm3.6 mm <br />0.0036 m <br />) +
cylindric +
3 +  and 5 +
opposite +  and alternate +
red striped +  and green +
subangular +
succulent +
sessile +  and petiolate +
reduced;small +
horizontal +  and vertical +
verrucate +
Hastatae +
Atriplex glabriuscula var. franktonii +
Atriplex glabriuscula +
variety +
dicotyledonous +
obscure;prominent +
triangular-hastate +
0.3 cm3 mm <br />0.003 m <br /> (1.1 cm11 mm <br />0.011 m <br />) +
erect;decumbent;erect;decumbent +