SALTBUSH FAMILY 439 



ovate double wing) and the sides commonly with two (or several) warty 

 projections. 



Seabeaehes, very common ; San Francisco to Southern California and the 

 Santa Barbara Islands. June-Dec. 



Ret's. — Atriplex leucophylla Dietr. Syn. PI. 5: 5.30 (1S.52). Obionc !iurophi/Ua Moq. in 

 DC. Proilr. 13=: 1119 (1S49), type from California, ChiimissiK 



Sect. II. — Shrubs, or at least woody at base, with staminate and pistillate 

 flowers on different plants. 



19. A. confertifolia Wats. Spiny Saltbush. (Fig. 

 83.) Compact round bushes 1 to 2 feet high, more 

 or less spiny; flowers in subpanieulate spikes, in fruit 

 very dense ; leaves ovate or elliptic, entire, rounded 

 at apex, abruptly cuneate at base, 3 to 8 lines long, 

 very shortly petioled; fruiting bracts sessile, round- 

 ovate or subdeltoid, acutish or mostly obtuse, trun- 

 cate or subcordate at base, -k to 10 lines long, entire 

 or sometimes dentate, united around the seed, the 

 dilated margins otherwise free and more or less 

 spreading, the sides smooth. 

 Fig. 83. Atkiplex coxferti- fommon on mesas and hills of the :\Iohave Desert : 

 bracts, x^^'!'"'' *""""*'' North to Inyo and Lassen cos.; east to Colorado, 

 thence south to Mexico. Not in the Colorado Desert. 



Logs. — .\ntclope Valley, Vary; Barstow, Jepson 47S3, .5170; Owens Lake, Jepson .5132; 

 Honey Lake Valley, Davy 3274. 



Biol. Note. — After losing their fruits the branches of the short i)anicle become rigid and 

 spiuesceut. Such naked spiny branches persist for several years and provide considerable pro- 

 tection for the bush against the attacks of grazing animals. All the shrubby species exhibit 

 similar characteristics in greater or less degree, but in none other of our species is the spini- 

 iiess so effectively developed as in A. confertifolia. 



Refs. — Atriplex confertifolia Wats. Proc. Am. Acad. 9: 119 (1S74). Obioiie coiiferlifolia 

 Torr. & Frem. in Frem. Sec. Rep. 318 (1845), type loc. Salt Lake, Utah. 



20. A. parryi Wats. Parry Saltbush. (Fig. 82e.) Densely branching 

 white-scurfy rounded bush 8 to 16 inches high, near the preceding but the 

 rigid spinosely tipped branches more numerous and slenderer; leaves thick, 

 round-cordate, obtuse or acute, sessile, 2 to 6 lines broad; flower-clusters 

 axillary; fruiting bracts very small (% to l^/o lines long), somewhat fan- 

 shaped, imited to above the middle, abruptly dilated above the broadly cuneate 

 base, the free margin short but broad and with a few low teeth, the sides 

 smooth. 



Antelope Vallej' and northeasterly through the Mohave Desert to Owens Lake 

 and Lone Pine, Jepson 5145, 5149 ; Death Valley and southern Nevada ace. 

 CoviUe. 



Refs. — Atriplex parryi Wats. Proc. Am. Acad. 17: 378 (1882), tvpe loc. Lancaster, Parry; 

 Cov. Contrib. U. S. Nat. Herb. 4: 181 (1893) ; Merriam, N. Am. Fauna, 7: 325 (1893) ; Parish, ' 

 Zoe, 5: 113 (1901). 



21. A. hymenelytra Wats. Desert Holly. (Fig. 82a.) Compactly 

 brandling, 1 to 3 feet high, the stems from thickened and often very gnarled 

 wood.y bases 1 inch in diameter; herbage covered with dense smooth silvery- 

 white scurf; leaves roundish, i/^ to 1% inches broad, somewhat cordate at 

 base, the undulate margin with coarse salient teeth, the petioles 3 to 6 lines 

 long; flower clu.sters iu panicled spikes; fruiting bracts on a short elavate 

 pedicel, round-reniform, strongly flattened, entire. 214 to 6 lines broad, distinct 

 or nearly so, the margins entirely free and sides smooth. 



Colorado and Mohave deserts north to Owens ^'alley; east to Utah. Also 

 called Silver Holly. 



Refs. — Atriplex hymenelytra Wats. Proc. Am. Acad. 9: 119 (1874). Obione hymenelytra 

 Torr. Pac. R. Rep. 4: 129, pi. 20 (1856), type loc. Williams River, Ariz. 



