2. Kochia americana Wats. Perennial summer-cypress. 



Perennial herb from a woody base; stems numerous, erect, 1.5-5 dm. (to 13 

 dm.) tall, loosely branched at or just above the base, simple above or occasionally 

 with few erect branches, usually more or less villous-tomentose when young but 

 soon glabrate; leaves numerous, sessile, often fascicled; blades 6-25 mm. long, 

 terete but flattish when dry, fleshy, acutish, erect or spreading, sparsely sericeous 

 or glabrous; flowers solitary or in 2's or 3's, white-tomentose; perianth in fruit 

 2 mm. broad, the flabellate wings 2 mm. long, distinct, membranaceous, crenu- 

 late, finely nerved; utricle glabrate; seed 2 mm. in diameter. 



Roadside alkaline plains and marshes, often in saline soils, in w. Tex., N.M. 

 and Ariz. (Apache and Navajo cos.), May-Aug.; Wyo. and Colo, to w. Tex., 

 n.w. N.M., Ariz, and Calif. 



Var. vestita Wats., with densely and permanently sericeous-villous herbage, 

 occurs in Ariz. 



8. Suaeda Scop. Sea Elite. Seepweed 



Annual or perennial herbs, sometimes shrubby plants, more or less fleshy; 

 leaves alternate, narrow, usually linear or terete and relatively small; flowers 

 perfect or polygamous, solitary or clustered in the upper axils, bracteate; perianth 

 segments 5, keeled or narrowly winged at maturity; stamens 5, with short fila- 

 ments; ovary 1 -celled, rounded or flat on the top; styles often 2; utricle com- 

 pressed, surrounded by the calyx; seed horizontal or vertical; embryo coiled in 

 a flat spiral; endosperm absent or scant. 



More than 100 species of cosmopolitan distribution; mostly along sea coasts 

 and in saline soils. 



1 Perianth lobes (at least some of them) corniculate-appendaged or winged; 

 leaves broadest at the base, ascending or spreading, those of the 

 inflorescence ovate or ovate-lanceolate; flowers and leaves crowded 

 1. S. depressa. 



1. Perianth lobes not appendaged nor winged, often cucuflate or carinate (2) 



2(1). Annuals or perhaps sometimes perennial but not suffrutescent at the base; 

 all the perianth lobes equally carinate (3) 



2. Perennials, suffrutescent at the base (4) 



3(2). Seed 1-1.5 mm. broad 2. S. linearis. 



3. Seed 0.8 mm. broad or less 3. S. mexicana. 



4(2). Leaves linear to linear-spatulate, green, usually much more than 10 mm. 

 long 4. S. Torreyana. 



4. Leaves roundish to oblong, often reddish and glaucous, mostly less than 10 



mm. long (5) 



5(4). Perianth segments deltoid, acutish; plants blackish (when dry) or purplish 

 (when alive) 5. S. nigrescens var. glabra 



5. Perianth segments obtuse; plants blue-gray 6. S. conferta. 



1. Suaeda depressa (Pursh) Wats. 



Annual or perennial herb; stems erect to decumbent, low, simple or freely 

 branching from the base, glabrous and glaucous, 2-10 dm. tall or long; leaves 

 green or glaucous, linear, semiterete, 7-40 mm. long, often crowded, acute, 

 usually broadest at the base, subulate; bracts 2-3 mm. long, ovate-lanceolate, 

 rather crowded on the branchlets; flowers crowded, 3 to 7 in each axil; spikes 

 slender, short or elongate; perianth cleft to the middle, the lobes distinctly un- 

 equal, 1.5-2 mm. wide at maturity, the upper 1 or 3 sepals prominently cucullate; 

 stamens 5; stigmas 2 to 5; seed about 1 mm. broad, slightly reticulate, black, 

 horizontal. 



846 



