ClBCULAR No. S. 



United States Department of Agriculture, 



DIVISION OF AGROSTOLOGY. 



SALTBUSHES. 



AUSTRALIAN SALTBUSHES. 



A considerable demand has arisen in the grazing regions of the West 

 during the last decade for seeds of the various species of Australian 

 ealtbush. These saltbushes are nearly all plants of the salsolaceous, 

 or pigweed, family, which botanists for purposes of exact knowledge 

 call the Chenopodiacese. There are over one hundred species of this 

 family in Aus- 

 tralia, and the 

 ones which 

 have come into 

 prominence as 

 desirable forage 

 plants grow 

 wild upon the 

 low plains and 

 in the broad 

 river valleys of 

 the interior of 

 that continent. 

 They are plants 

 which are spe- 

 cially adapted 

 by nature for 

 growth in arid 

 and semi arid 



regions where the annual rainfall is small and torrential, and where 

 there are long periods of months and perhaps years when no rain Jails. 

 Many of them grow on alkaline soil and along the margins of brackish 

 or stagnant pools, and thrive where grasses and other more nutritious 

 but less hardy forage plants will not grow. They are annuals, with 

 small fleshy leaves and rigid harsh stems, and are protected by various 



Fig. 1.— Australian saltbush (Atriplex semibaccata). 



