SALTBUSH FAMILY 



441 



those of the vegetative branches 4 to 7 or 10 lines long, deciduous during 

 the high heat period, those of the fruiting branches very small (1 to 4 lines 

 long), with smaller ones fascicled in the axils; flowers in close naked panicled 

 spikes ; fruiting bracts roundish, united about %, 1 to 2 lines broad, commonly 

 broader than long, laciniately or unequally toothed, the sides with 2 or more 

 slender spreading teeth or tubercular crests or sometimes quite smooth. 



Desert bottoms and flats and river benches : Colorado and Mohave deserts ; 

 north to Inyo Co. ; San Joaquin Valley ; Arizona. Fl. June ; fr. Sept.- Oct. 



Locs. Calexico, Parish 8261; Mecca, Parish 8262; Whipple Mts., Jepson 5215; Barstow, 

 Jepson 4800, 5173; Owens Lake, Jepson 5104; Alabama Hills, Jepson 918; Bakersfield, Davy 

 2137, 2402, 2884; Los Banos, Grinnell. 



Eefs. ATRIPLEX POLYCARPA Wats. Proc. Am. Acad. 9: 117 (1874); Merriam, N. Am. 

 Fauna, 7: 325 (1893). Obione polycarpa Torr. in Emory, Mil. Eeconn. 150 (1848), type loc. 

 Williams River, Ariz. 



26. A. nuttallii Wats. NUTTALL SALTBUSH. Diffuse shrub 1 to 2 feet high ; 

 leaves obovate to oblong or linear, entire, narrowed to a short petiole or sessile, 

 1 to 2 inches long ; flowers in sparingly naked panicled spikes ; fruiting bracts 

 ovate, convex, united except at apex, 2 to 5 lines long, sessile or raised on a 

 pedicel 2 lines long, the margin commonly 3-toothed at apex, the middle tooth 

 often largest and the lateral small or wanting, the sides irregularly and often 

 copiously tooth-crested. 



Honey Lake Valley, Lassen Co., Davy; east to the Rocky Mts. 



Eef. ATRIPLEX NUTTALLII Wats. Proc. Am. Aead. 9: 116 (1874), type west American. 



27. A. linearis Wats. Shrub, more woody than A. nuttallii; leaves linear 

 or narrowed towards the base, ^ to l 1 /^ inches long; staminate flowers in 

 small globose clusters, in simple or panicled spikes, leafy below; pistillate 

 flowers solitary or few together in similar spikes, more leafy; fruiting bracts 

 lanceolate or ovate, 2 to 4 lines long, prolonged above into a narrow tip, the 

 sides irregularly tuberculate or crested and developing 4 deeply toothed wings. 



Colorado Desert; south into Mexico. 



Locs. Durmid, Parish 8073. Referred here provisionally are plants of the Argus Mts., 

 Inyo Co., Purpus 5409, or these may belong to A. aptera Nelson (Bot. Gaz. 34: 356, 1902, type 

 loc. Laramie). 



Refs. ATRIPLEX LINEARIS Wats. Proc. Am. Acad. 24: 72 (1889), type loc. Guaymas, 

 Sonora, Palmer 120, 121, 235. 



28. A. canescens James. SHAD-SCALE. 

 (Fig. 85.) Eoundish gray shrub 1 to 5 feet 

 high; leaves linear, entire, narrowed at base, 

 % to l 1 ^ inches long, finely scurf y-canescent ; 

 flowers mostly dioecious in elongated narrow 

 spike-like panicles, very dense in fruit; fruit- 

 ing bracts forming a thick hard body 2 to 4 

 lines long, tipped at apex with 2 lanceolate 

 teeth 1 line long and laterally margined by 4 

 roundish very conspicuous wings 3 to 6 lines 

 long and 2 to 4 lines broad; wings decurrent 

 at base on the pedicel and overtopping the free 

 ATRIPLEX CANESCENS James ; a p eXj the margin irregularly dentate or lacin- 



iate. 



Desert flats or washes, Mohave and Colorado deserts west to San Bernardino 

 and San Diego ; east to Nevada and Dakota and south into Mexico. 



Locs. San Diego, Palmer; Imperial, Parish 8259; San Bernardino, Parish; Barstow, 

 Jepson 5171; Argus Mts., Hall $ Chandler, 7067; Owens Lake, Jepson 5105; Colorado River 

 near Williams Fork, Jepson 5225; Holtville, Parish 8077. 



Fig. 85. 



fruiting bracts, x 4. 



