Atriplex canescens (Pursh) Nutt.     ssp. canescens.   Chenopodiaceae  (Goosefoot Family)   Native   Four-Winged Saltbush

                                    January Photo

Plant Characteristics:  Erect much-branched woody shrub 4-20 dm. high, grayish-scurfy, with spreading or ascending terete branches; lvs. linear-spatulate to linear-oblong, sessile, 1.5-5 cm. long, 2-8 mm. wide, revolute; plants dioecious, the male glomerules in terminal panicles of dense spikes, the female in dense leafy-bracted spikes and panicles; fruiting bracts stalked, the body hard, not compressed, the bracts 6-15 mm. long, 4-8 (-10) mm. wide, with a second pair of longitudinal wings from middle of each bract, the 4 wings entire to deeply and coarsely dentate, smooth or appendages; seed brown, 1.5-2.5 mm. long.

Habitat:  Common on dry slopes, flats and washes, below 7000 ft.; Alkali Sink, Creosote Bush Scrub, to Pinyon-Juniper Wd.; both deserts; less frequent in subsaline places; Coastal Strand to V. Grassland; cismontane valleys from San Diego Co. n.; to e. Wash., S. Dak., Kans., Tex., Mex.  June-Aug.

Name:  Atriplex is the ancient Latin name for these plants.  (Dale 95).  Canescens, becoming gray.  (Jaeger 45).

General:  Common in the study area and very common on the North Star bluffs.  Photographed on the North Star bluffs and at Big Canyon.  One of the native halophytes found in Upper Newport Bay. (my comments).      The Zuni Indians ground the roots and blossoms and moistened them with saliva for use on ant bites.  (Clarke 211).       Chenopodiaceae species have been known to cause hay fever and asthma.  (Fuller 379).      Indians ground seed for meal and also used them as an emetic.  Leaves were sometimes eaten as spinach.  Zuni Indians in New Mexico stirred the ashes of Saltbush into the batter of their water bread in order to change the color of the meal to greenish-blue.  White New Mexicans chew green leaves with a pinch of salt to relieve stomach pains.  (Sweet 17).      Over 100 species, the genus essentially cosmopolitan.  (Munz, Flora So. Calif. 352).       Subspecies intergrade.  (Hickman, Ed. 503).

Text Ref: Hickman, Ed. 503; Munz, Calif. Flora 379; Munz, Flora So. Calif. 354; Roberts 18.

Photo Ref: Dec 3 82 #2,4; June 4 83 # 10; July 1 83 # 10; Oct-Nov 83 # 10; Jan 4 84 # 9.

Identity: by R. De Ruff.  

First Found:  December 1982.

Computer Ref: Plant Data 214.

Have plant sample.

Last edit 6/6/04.

                             November Photo                                                                December Photo