450 



AMARANTHACEAE 



6. A. californicus Wats. Stems prostrate, 4 to 12 inches long, stoutish 

 and rather fleshy, with numerous short branchlets; leaves obovate to oblong, 

 mostly obtuse, prominently mucronate, the veins and margins white, 2 to 5 

 lines long, the petiole % to as long; flowers green or reddish, in many small 

 axillary clusters; sepals in staminate flower 3 (or 2), membranous, oblong- 

 ovate, mucronate or erosulate; stamens 3 (or 2 or 1) ; sepals in pistillate 

 flower 1 (or 2 or 3) ; utricle smooth, bursting irregularly and releasing a red 

 seed. 



Moist soils, often in beds of dried-up pools or lakes; California to southern 

 Oregon and western Nevada. Sept.-Oct. 



Locs. Yreka, Butler 133; Searsville, San Mateo Co., C. F. Baker 1855; Palomar, 

 McClatchie. 



Befs. AMARANTHUS CALIFORNICUS Wats. Bot. Cal. 2: 42 (1880). Mengea calif ornica 

 Moq. in DC. Prodr. 13 2 : 270 (1849), type loc. Monterey, Hartweg 1930; "Caulis *** 

 erectus"; otherwise the spms. above cited agree notably with description of the type. 



A. ALBOMARGINATUS Uline & Bray, Bot. Gaz. 19: 318 (1894), type loc. Monterey Co., Palmer 

 456 in 1876. Stems white; leaves elliptical, very small (1 to 2 lines long), conspicuously white- 

 margined; flowers crowded in the dense foliage; sepals 2 or 3, minute, scale-like. Not known 

 to us, but apparently the plant we here take to be A. californicus. 



7. A. fimbriatus Wats. Stems several from the base, 1 to 2 feet high, 

 simple or sparingly branched; herbage glabrous, purplish, especially the 

 inflorescence; leaves linear, narrowed below into a short petiole, 1 to 2 inches 

 long; flowers in rather loose clusters; clusters scattered or mostly approxi- 

 mate and forming a long terminal spike ; bracts ovate, acute, scarious-bordered, 

 shorter than the calyx; sepals of staminate flowers oblong, obtuse, those of 

 the pistillate flowers broadly fan-shaped with a narrow thickened base and 

 fimbriate margin, 1 line long; "stamens 2 or 3"; stigmas 3. 



Mohave and Colorado deserts, east to Utah and Texas, south into Mexico, 



Locs. Lanfair, Maye Tennent; Julian, Cleveland. 



Eefs. AMARANTHUS FIMBRIATUS Wats. Bot. Cal. 2: 42 (1880). Amblogyne fimbriata 

 Gray, Proc. Am. Acad. 5: 168 (1861). Sarratia berlandieri var. fimbriata Torr. Bot. Mex. 

 Bound. 179 (1859), type loc. Gila Eiver, Schott. 



8. A. palmeri Wats. Stems stout, erect, 2 to 4 feet high, glabrous or 

 pubescent; leaves broadly ovate, acute or acuminate, broadly cuneate at base, 



1 to 4 inches long, on petioles 1 to 2 times as long ; flowers dioecious, in dense 

 elongated spikes leafy at base; bracts solitary, those of the pistillate spikes 

 subulate, spreading, rigid, awn-tipped, narrowly scarious-margined at base, 



2 to 3 times as long as the flowers; calyx % to l 1 /^ lines long, falling with 

 the fruit, unequal, obscurely cordate at base; sepals of staminate flower 

 oblong-ovate and acute, or oblong-lanceolate and acuminate; sepals of pistil- 

 late flower obovate, retuse or truncate, usually mucronate or setaceously 

 apiculate ; stigmas 2 ; utricle rugose at summit. 



Colorado Desert; east to Texas and south into Mexico. 



Locs. Holtville, Parish 8269; Chemehuevis Valley, Colorado Eiver, Jepson 5209; Ft. Yuma, 

 Brandegee; Salton Creek, Brandegee; Cameron Lake, Brandegee. Abundant in southern 

 Arizona where, cut and stacked by the Mexican population as a winter feed for horses, it 

 yields nearly 3 tons per acre (Bur. PI. Ind. Bull. 67: 58). 



Eef. AMARANTHUS PALMERI Wats. Proe. Am. Acad. 12: 274 (1877), type loc. Larkin's 

 Sta., San Diego Co., Palmer 323. 



9. A. deflexus L. Stems slender, prostrate, a little succulent, 1 to iy 2 

 feet long ; leaves rhombic-ovate ; flowers polygamous, in short spikes clustered 

 in the axils, or disposed in dense terminal spikes 1 inch long or more; sepals 

 2 or 3, oblong, surpassing the bracts; utricle 3 to 5-ribbed, surpassing the 

 sepals, indehiscent. 



Introduced from southern Europe; naturalized along streets and in gar- 

 dens; towns about San Francisco Bay. 



Eef. AMARANTHUS DEFLEXUS L. Mant. 2: 295 (1771), type European. 



