Atriplex lentiformis
Scientific classification Edit this classification
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]

Synonyms

(?) Obione lentiformis Torr.
(basionym)[1]
A. breweri S.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.

References

  1. 1 2 3 Proc. Amer. Acad. Arts 9:118. 1874 "Atriplex lentiformis". Germplasm Resources Information Network. Agricultural Research Service, United States Department of Agriculture. 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.
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