Goosefoot Family 131 



7. DONDIA Adans. 



Fleshy annual or perennial herbs, sometimes suffretes- 

 cent, with alternate narrowly linear thick or nearly 

 terete entire leaves and perfect or polygamous bracteo- 

 late flowers solitary or clustered in the upper axils. 

 Calyx 5-parted or 5-cleft, the segments sometimes keeled 

 or slightly winged in fruit, enclosing the utricle. Sta- 

 mens 5. Styles usually 2, short. Seed vertical or hori- 

 zontal ; embryo coiled into a flat spiral. 



1. D. Moquini (Torr.) Nelson. Erect branched, rather bushy, 

 usually about 6 dm. high, somewhat woody at base, branches 

 leafy, smooth or somewhat tomentose ; leaves linear subterete, 

 narrow at base, 12-18 mm. long, acute, the floral similar ; clusters 

 mostly 7-flowered ; perianth deeply cleft, incurved or slightly 

 cucullate; seed vertical, 1.5 mm. broad, dark brown, finely tuber- 

 culate. (Suaeda Torreyana Wats.) 



Common in saline places. July-September. 



2. D. nmltiflora (Torr.) Heller. Somewhat shrubby, 6-10 

 dm. high, with slender diffuse or divaricate leafy branches, more 

 or less tomentose ; leaves numerous, small, 1 cm. long or less, ob- 

 long, narrow at base, obtuse or acute; flowers solitary or clus- 

 tered, shortly lobed, small; seed mostly vertical, less than 1 mm. 

 broad, obscurely tuberculate. (Suaeda suffrutescens Wats.) 



In saline places in the interior and occasional along the coast. 



3. D. Californica (Wats.) Heller. Glabrous or pubescent; 

 stems woody at base, about 2 dm. high; branches decumbent, 

 6-12 dm. long, woody below, bearing ascending or erect, very 

 leafy branchlets 15-30 cm. long ; leaves broadly linear, acute, 10-14 

 mm. long ; flowers 4 mm. broad, 1-3 in the axils ; perianth deeply 

 cleft; seed vertical, nearly 2 mm. broad, faintly reticulated. 

 (S. Californica Wats.) 



Frequent In saline places along the coast. 



4. D. depressa (Pursh) Britton. Annual, branched from the 

 base and usually above, 2-5 dm. high; branches decumbent or 

 ascending, usually very leafy; leaves narrowly linear, 2-3 cm. 

 long, broadest at or near the base, the upper often narrowly 



