444 



CHENOPODIACEAE 



11. SPIROSTACHYS Wats. 



Shrub with alternate leafless jointed branches; the branchlets fleshy and 

 green with short scale-like leaves. Flowers perfect, arranged spirally by 

 threes in a crowded spike, in the axils of fleshy subsessile bracts. Calyx of 4 

 (or 5) concave carinate imbricated sepals, more or less united. Stamens 1 

 or 2, with slender filaments at length exserted. Ovary oblong; styles 2, 

 rarely 3, commonly distinct. Achene with membranous pericarp, free from 

 the vertical oblong seed. Embryo green, nearly surrounding the rather copious 

 endosperm. Three species, 2 in S. Am. (Greek speira, a coil or spiral, and 

 stachus, a spike.) 



1. S. occidentalis Wats. IODINE BUSH. (Fig. 88.) 

 Erect, diffusely branched, 2 to 4 feet high; vestiges of 

 leaves very short, broadly triangular and amplexi- 

 caul, acute, often nearly obsolete; spikes numerous, 

 sessile or nearly so, cylindrical, 3 to 16 lines long; 

 bracts rhomboidal; flowers crowded, slightly exserted; 

 calyx becoming spongy and enclosing the fruit. 



Moist alkaline clay soil: San Joaquin Valley; Inyo 

 Co. south to Chemehuevis Valley on the Colorado River, 

 east to Texas. Very abundant in the upper San Joaquin 

 Valley. 



Refs. SPIROSTACHYS OCCIDENTALIS Wats. Proc. Am. Acad. 9: 

 125 (1874). Halostachys occidentalis Wats. Bot. King, 293 (1871), 

 type from the Great Basin. Allenrolfea occidentals Ktze. Rev. 

 Gen. PI. 546 (1891) ; Jepson, Fl. W. Mid. Cal. 181 (1901). 



12. SALICORNIA L. SAMPHIRE. GLASSWORT. 

 Low very succulent herbs with jointed stems and 

 opposite terete branches. Leaves reduced to mere op- 

 posite scales at the nodes, the flowers immersed in the 

 axils of the scales of the thickened upper joints and 

 forming a cylindrical spike. Flowers disposed in op- 

 posite clusters of 3, all perfect or the lateral ones of 

 each trio often only staminate. Calyx small and bladder- 

 like, with an anterior opening, in fruit spongy and 

 deciduous. Stamens 2, exserted in flower. Ovary ob- 

 long; styles 2 or 3, short. Achene with membranous 

 pericarp, adherent to the seed. Embryo folded, the 

 cotyledons incumbent upon the caulicle ; endosperm none or almost none. Ten 

 species, all continents. (Latin sal, salt, and cornu, horn, plants of saline 

 habitat with horn-like branches.) 

 Perennial by rootstocks; flowers of a trio all of the same height. 



Spikes slender, narrower than stems 1. S. ambigua. 



Spikes rather thicker than stems 2. S. subterminalis. 



Annuals; middle flower higher than the lateral. 



Joints of spikes longer than broad 3. S. europaea. 



Joints of spikes broader than long 4. S. mucronata. 



1. S. ambigua Michx. PICKLE-WEED. (Fig. 89.) Stems erect, or decumbent 

 and rooting at the joints. 5 to 12 inches long, from woody rootstocks ; herbage 

 greenish; internodes rather long; spikes slender, usually narrower than the 

 stem, all the scales flower-bearing to the top ; achene pubescent. 



Salt marshes along the coast : San Francisco and Suisun bays south to San 

 Pedro and Lower California, north to British Columbia. Atlantic coast. 

 Ref. SALICORNIA AMBIGUA Michx. Fl. Bor. Am. 1: 2 (1803), type loc. the Carolinas. 



2. S. subterminalis Parish. Stems widely spreading or erect and compact, 

 !/o to 1 foot high, from running rootstocks; internodes short; branchlets very 



Fig. 88. SPIROSTACHYS 

 OCCIDENTALIS Wats. ; 

 flowering spikes, x 1. 



