GOOSEFOOT FAMILY 87 



bracts 3 mm. long, sessile or nearly so, truncate-flabelliform, thick and rigid, united to above the 

 middle, the margins entire, the sides smooth. 



Alkaline soils, Lower Sonoran Zone; Mojave Desert, southern California, to western Nevada. Type locality: 

 Lancaster, California. May-July. 



32. Atriplex confertifolia (Torr.) S. Wats. Spiny Saltbush. Fig. 1532. 



Obione confertifolia Torr. & Frem. in Frem. Second Rep. 318. 1845. 



Obione spinosa Moq. in DC. Prod. 13 2 : 108. 1849. 



Atriplex spinosa D. Dietr. Syn. PI. 5: 536. 1852. 



Atriplex confertifolia S. Wats. Proc. Amer. Acad. 9: 119. 1874. 



An erect, much branched shrub, 3-12 dm. high, the branches stout, erect or ascending, the 

 branchlets usually divaricate and spinose, densely furfuraceous when young. Leaves subsessile 

 or short-petioled, broadly ovate to oval, 1-2 cm. long, cuneate to rounded at base, thick and 

 densely furfuraceous; flowers dioecious, in small dense axillary glomerules ; fruiting bracts 

 broadly oval to suborbicular, 6-12 mm. long, united at the base, entire, densely furfuraceous. 



Alkaline soils, mainly Upper Sonoran Zone; eastern Oregon, southward east of the Cascade-Sierra Nevada 

 Divide to the Mojave Desert, California, eastward to North Dakota, Colorado, and Chihuahua. Type locality: 

 borders of the Great Salt Lake. April-June. Sheep Fat, Shad-scale. 



33. Atriplex spinifera J. F. Macbride. Mojave Saltbush. Fig. 1533. 



Atriplex spinifera J. F. Macbride, Contr. Gray Herb. no. 53: 11. 1918. 



An erect, much branched shrub, 3-15 dm. high, with rigid mostly erect branches, the branch- 

 lets divergent, terete, becoming rigid and spinose, densely white-furfuraceous when young, old 

 stems with gray exfoliating bark. Leaves short-petioled or the upper sessile, crowded or scat- 

 tered, ovate-deltoid to elliptic, 1-2 cm. long, or sometimes smaller, entire or subhastate, gray or 

 whitish furfuraceous; fruiting bracts 7-15 mm. long, strongly convex below, forming a globose 

 body, the margins above forming oblong or orbicular wings, entire or obscurely dentate, the 

 sides smooth or sparsely cristate. 



Alkaline soils, Sonoran Zones; San Joaquin Valley and the Mojave Desert, California. Type locality: Mari- 

 copa Hills, Kern County, California. May-June. 



34. Atriplex Nuttallii var. falcata M. E. Jones. Nuttall's Saltbush. Fig. 1534. 



Atriplex Nuttallii var. falcata M. E. Jones, Contr. West. Bot. No. 11: 19. 1903. 

 Atriplex falcata Standley, N. Amer. Fl. 21: 68. 1916. 



Perennial, suffrutescent and much branched at base, the stems stout, terete, erect or decum- 

 bent, 2-5 dm. high, sparsely branched above, the branches furfuraceous. Leaves numerous, 

 sessile or subsessile, narrowly oblong to linear, 1.5-5 cm. long, cuneate at base, entire, firm, 

 closely furfuraceous ; flowers dioecious, in axillary glomerules or forming interrupted paniculate 

 spikes ; fruiting bracts subsessile or sometimes stalked, narrowly oblong to ovate, 5-8 mm. long, 

 united to near the apex, entire or sparingly denticulate, tuberculate and irregularly crested on 

 the sides. 



Alkaline soils, mainly Upper Sonoran Zone; southeastern Washington and eastern Oregon to central Nevada, 

 and east to Idaho and northern Utah. The typical species ranges from Saskatchewan and Manitoba to northern 

 Utah and Nebraska. Type locality : Weiser, Idaho. May-Aug. 



35. Atriplex canescens (Pursh) Nutt. Hoary Saltbush. Fig. 1535. 



Calligonum canescens Pursh, Fl. Amer. Sept. 370. 1814. 



Atriplex canescens Nutt. Gen. 1: 197. 1818. 



Obione tetraptera Benth. Bot. Sulph. 48. 1840. 



Pterochiton occidcntale Torr. in Frem. Second Rep. 318. 1845. 



An erect, much branched shrub, 6-15 dm. high, the branches ascending or spreading, terete, 

 white-furfuraceous, the old stems with gray exfoliating bark. Leaves numerous, sessile or nearly 

 so, linear to narrowly oblong, usually broadest above the middle, 1-5 cm. long, cuneate to attenu- 

 ate at base, thick and furfuraceous ; flowers dioecious or rarely monoecious in more or less inter- 

 rupted simple or paniculate leafy or nearly naked spikes ; fruiting bracts stalked, the body of the 

 bract indurate, ovoid, 7-13 mm. long, bearing on each side 2 prominent longitudinal wings, 

 usually much surpassing the free portion of the bracts, furfuraceous or glabrate and green, the 

 margins undulate or sharply dentate. 



Dry plains and hillsides, Sonoran Zones; eastern Washington, southward east of the Cascade-Sierra Nevada 

 Divide to the deserts of southern California, and ranging to South Dakota and Texas, Zacatecas, Mexico, and 

 Lower California. Type locality: on the plains of the Missouri, near the Big Bend, South Dakota. May-July. 

 Wing-scale. 



36. Atriplex linearis S. Wats. Narrow-leaved Saltbush. Fig. 1536. 



Atriplex linearis S. Wats. Proc. Amer. Acad. 24: 72. 1889. 



An erect, much branched shrub, 3-25 dm. high, the branches ascending or spreading, terete, 

 densely white-furfuraceous. Leaves sessile, linear, 1-5 cm. long, revolute, firm, densely white- 

 furfuraceous ; flowers dioecious in slender interrupted mostly paniculate spikes, or the pistillate 

 sometimes in few-flowered axillary glomerules ; fruiting bracts sessile or nearly so, lanceolate 

 to ovate, 4-6 mm. long, each bract with a pair of thin wings about 3 mm._ or less broad, irregu- 

 larly dentate or laciniate, the free tips of the bracts much exceeding the wings. 



Alkaline soils. Lower Sonoran Zone; Colorado Desert, California, to southern Arizona, Sonora, and Lower 

 California. Type locality: alkaline soil about Guaymas, Sonora. May— July. 



