Atriplex pusilla

(Torrey) S. Watson

Proc. Amer. Acad. Arts 9: 110. 1874.

Common names: Dwarf orach
Endemic
Basionym: Obione pusilla Torrey ex S. Watson Botany (Fortieth Parallel), 291. 1871
Treatment appears in FNA Volume 4. Treatment on page 356. Mentioned on page 328.

Herbs, freely branched, 0.5–2.5 dm; branches spreading to erect, typically suffused with red, slender, sparsely scurfy. Leaves alternate except proximally, not especially numerous; blade elliptic to subelliptic or ovate, 2–12 × 3–6 mm, base acute, rounded, or subcordate, margin entire, gray to almost green scurfy. Flowers solitary or paired in axils, staminate near branch ends, calyx 5-cleft. Fruiting bracteoles simulating tiny bracteate leaves, sessile, ovate, compressed, 1–2 × 1 mm, united to apex, abruptly acute to acuminate, entire, faces plane. Seeds brownish, 0.8–1 mm.


Phenology: Flowering Jun–Oct.
Habitat: Saline substrates in valley bottoms, playas, and along drainages with greasewood, rabbitbrush, shadscale, and sagebrush
Elevation: 1000-2100 m

Discussion

Atriplex pusilla is closely similar to, and possibly a near ally of, the geographically disjunct A. parishii complex of the Great Valley of California, which it simulates in all main features. The very tiny fruiting bracteoles, very difficult to discern among the distal bracteate leaves, are characteristic and apparently closely similar only to those of A. parishii var. minuscula. The red stems are almost universal in plants of this species.

Selected References

None.

Lower Taxa

None.

"/2" is not declared as a valid unit of measurement for this property.

... more about "Atriplex pusilla"
broadest +
Stanley L. Welsh +
(Torrey) S. Watson +
slippery +
aromatic +
subcordate +, rounded +  and acute +
Obione pusilla +
0.2 cm2 mm <br />0.002 m <br /> (1.2 cm12 mm <br />0.012 m <br />) +
elliptic +  and subelliptic or ovate +
0.3 cm3 mm <br />0.003 m <br /> (0.6 cm6 mm <br />0.006 m <br />) +
persistent +  and deciduous +
reddish-brown +, black +, brown +  and green +
0 cm0 mm <br />0 m <br /> (?) +
cuneate +  and ovate or obovate +
suffused with red +
spreading +  and erect +
slender +
not crested +
3-5-parted +
Dwarf orach +
Calif. +, Nev. +  and Oreg. +
1000-2100 m +
smooth +  and tuberculate +
plane +, acuminate +  and acute +
paired +  and solitary +
rarely +  and lacking +
unisexual +  and bisexual +
not +  and connate +
enlarged +
Saline substrates in valley bottoms, playas, and along drainages with greasewood, rabbitbrush, shadscale, and sagebrush +
bladderlike +
terminal +  and axillary +
sessile +  and bracteate +
deciduous +  and persistent +
0.1 cm1 mm <br />0.001 m <br /> (0.2 cm2 mm <br />0.002 m <br />) +
compressed +  and ovate +
1 cm10 mm <br />0.01 m <br /> (?) +
not winged +  and winged +
green +  and gray to almost +
lobed +  and serrate-dentate +
subsessile +, sessile +  and monomorphic +
hastate +  and ovate +
inferior +, half-inferior +  and superior +
crassinucellate +  and bitegmic +
campylotropous +
1 +  and single +
persistent +  and deciduous +
(1-)3-5-lobed +
papery +  and chartaceous +
Flowering Jun–Oct. +
Proc. Amer. Acad. Arts +
bulbous +  and taprooted +
fusiform +
fleshy +  and fibrous +
verrucate +  and striate +
flattened +
0.08 cm0.8 mm <br />8.0e-4 m <br /> (0.1 cm1 mm <br />0.001 m <br />) +
cylindric +
3 +  and 5 +
opposite +  and alternate +
succulent +
sessile +  and petiolate +
reduced;small +
horizontal +  and vertical +
verrucate +
Atriplex sect. Obione +
Atriplex pusilla +
Atriplex subsect. Pusillae +
species +
dicotyledonous +