Atriplex lentiformis

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Atriplex lentiformis
Atriplex lentiformis 2.jpg
Scientific classification Red Pencil Icon.png
Kingdom: Plantae
Clade: Tracheophytes
Clade: Angiosperms
Clade: Eudicots
Order: Caryophyllales
Family: Amaranthaceae
Genus: Atriplex
Species:
A. lentiformis
Binomial name
Atriplex lentiformis
Subspecies

A. lentiformis ssp. breweri(S.Wats.) Hall & Clements (quailbush)
A. lentiformis(Torr.) ssp. lentiformis (big saltbush) [2]

Contents

Synonyms

(?) Obione lentiformisTorr.
(basionym) [1]
A. breweriS.Wats [1] A. lentiformis var. breweri(S.Wats.) McMinn = A. lentiformis subsp. breweri [2]

Atriplex lentiformis (quail bush, big saltbrush, big saltbush, quailbrush, lenscale, len-scale saltbush and white thistle) is a species of saltbush. [2]

Distribution

Atriplex lentiformis is native to the southwestern United States and northern Mexico, where it grows in habitats with saline or alkaline soils, such as salt flats and dry lake beds, coastline, and desert scrub. It can also be found in nonsaline soils on riverbanks and woodland.

Description

Atriplex lentiformis is a spreading, communal shrub reaching one to three meters in height and generally more in width. It is highly branched and bears scaly or scurfy gray-green leaves up to 5 centimeters long and often toothed or rippled along the edges. This species may be dioecious or monoecious, with individuals bearing either male or female flowers, or sometimes both. Male flowers are borne in narrow inflorescences up to 50 centimeters long, while inflorescences of female flowers are smaller and more compact. Plants can change from monoecious to dioecious and from male to female and vice versa. [2]

This species blooms in June and July.

Uses

This saltbush species, A. lentiformis, and Atriplex canescens are the food plants for the saltbush sootywing Hesperopsis alpheus , a butterfly. [3]

Atriplex lentiformis is used in restoration of riparian habitats, one of the native plants in riparian zone restoration projects in its native ranges. [2]

Lower Gila River and Colorado River regions

Atriplex lentiformis grows in the Mesquite Bosque vegetative association with the native Arrowweed - Pluchea sericea, Velvet mesquite - Prosopis velutina, and others in the Lower Colorado River Valley and Gila River valleys of southwestern Arizona, southeastern California, and northwestern Mexico.

The maximum height occurs where a groundwater source supplies plentiful moisture, and saline soil conditions are optimal for the quailbush with other plants losing from the competition. However, the invasive species Tamarisk - Tamarix ramosissima and tumbleweed, Tumbling oracle - Atriplex rosea are successful and problematic competitors. The saltbush can reach 3.5 metres (11 ft) tall and wide in advantageous growing locales, with the form becoming a large flattened hemisphere, with adjacent hemispheres merging into an impenetrable thicket mass.

Related Research Articles

<i>Atriplex leucophylla</i> Species of flowering plant

Atriplex leucophylla is a species of saltbush known by the common names beach saltbush and white orache. It is native to the coastline of California and Baja California, and the Channel Islands, where it is a resident of beach dunes and other sandy areas.

<i>Atriplex argentea</i> Species of flowering plant

Atriplex argentea is a species of saltbush known by the common names silverscale saltbush and silver orache. It is native to western North America from southern Canada to northern Mexico, where it grows in many types of habitat, generally on saline soils.

<i>Extriplex californica</i> Species of aquatic plant

Extriplex californica is a plant species known by the common name California saltbush or California orache. Formerly, it was included in genus Atriplex. It is native to coastal California and Baja California, where it grows in areas with saline soils, such as beaches and salt marshes.

Atriplex cordulata is a species of saltbush known by the common names heartscale and heart-leaf orache. It is endemic to the Central Valley and its San Joaquin Valley of California, where it grows in areas of saline and alkaline soils.

Atriplex coulteri is a species of saltbush known by the common names Coulter's saltbush and Coulter's orache.

Atriplex depressa is a species of saltbush known by the common names brittlescale and depressed orache. It is sometimes treated as a variety of Atriplex parishii.

<i>Atriplex elegans</i> Species of flowering plant

Atriplex elegans is a species of saltbush known by the common name wheelscale saltbush, Mecca orach, or wheelscale. It is native to the Southwestern United States, and northern Mexico, where it grows in areas of saline or alkaline soils, such as alkali flats and desert dry lakebeds.

Atriplex fruticulosa is a species of saltbush known by the common names ball saltbush and little oak orach.

<i>Atriplex nummularia</i> Species of plant

Atriplex nummularia is a species of saltbush from the family Amaranthaceae and is a large woody shrub known commonly as oldman saltbush. A. nummularia is native to Australia and occurs in each of the mainland states, thriving in arid and semi-arid inland regions.

Atriplex pacifica is a species of saltbush known by the common names Davidson's saltbush, South Coast saltbush, and Pacific orach.

Atriplex parishii is an uncommon species of saltbush known by the common names Parish's saltbush and Parish's brittlescale. It is native to central and southern California where it can occasionally be found along the immediate coastline, and the Channel Islands. Its distribution extended historically into the western edges of the Mojave Desert and Baja California and it may still exist there.

Atriplex parryi is a species of saltbush known by the common name Parry's saltbush. It is native to the deserts and plateaus of eastern California and western Nevada.

Atriplex phyllostegia is a species of saltbush known by the common names arrowscale, leafcover saltweed, and Truckee orach. It is native to the western United States from California to Utah, where it grows in meadow bottoms and areas with saline soils such as dry or ephemeral lakes.

Atriplex serenana is a species of saltbush known by the common names bractscale and stinking orach. It is native to California and Baja California, where it grows in saline and alkaline soils such as those on alkali flats and beach bluffs.

Atriplex spinifera is a species of saltbush, known by the common names spiny saltbush and spinescale saltbush.

Atriplex truncata is a species of saltbush known by the common names wedgeleaf saltbush, wedgescale, and wedge orach, native to western North America from British Columbia to California and to New Mexico. It grows in montane to desert habitats with saline soils, such as dry lake beds.

<i>Atriplex watsonii</i> Species of aquatic plant

Atriplex watsonii is a species of saltbush known by the common name Watson's saltbush, or Watson's orach. It is native to the coastline of California and Baja California, where it grows in coastal areas with saline soils, such as salt marshes and beach scrub, with other halophytes such as saltgrass. It extends inland in the Los Angeles Basin, and along the Santa Ana River.

<i>Atriplex gardneri</i> Species of flowering plant

Atriplex gardneri is a species of flowering plant in the amaranth family known by the common name Gardner's saltbush. It is native to western North America from British Columbia to Saskatchewan in Canada south to Nevada and New Mexico in the United States. The specific epithet of the species, gardneri, is misnamed after its first collector, Alexander Gordon. The naturalist Alfred Moquin-Tandon was under the impression that Gordon's last name was Gardner.

Atriplex acanthocarpa is a species of flowering plant in the amaranth family known by the common names armed saltbush, tubercled saltbush, and huaha. It is native to North America, where it is limited to the US states of Arizona, New Mexico, and Texas, and adjacent Mexico.

<i>Atriplex nuttallii</i> Species of flowering plant

Atriplex nuttallii, also known as Nuttall's saltbush, is native to central and western North America. It has been treated by some botanists as a synonym of Atriplex canescens.

References

  1. 1 2 3 Proc. Amer. Acad. Arts 9:118. 1874 "Atriplex lentiformis". Germplasm Resources Information Network (GRIN). Agricultural Research Service (ARS), United States Department of Agriculture (USDA). Retrieved December 5, 2009.
  2. 1 2 3 4 5 Meyer, Rachelle (2005). "Atriplex lentiformis". Fire Effects Information System. Rocky Mountain Research Station, Fire Sciences Laboratory: USDA, U.S. Forest Service . Retrieved December 4, 2009.
  3. "Butterflies and Moths: Saltbush Sootywing". Archived from the original on 2007-11-18. Retrieved 2008-11-27.