GOOSEFOOT FAMILY 



However, there are redeeming qualities. For instance, the 

 young plants make excellent greens and from the seeds 

 is extracted a unique oil that is valuable medicinally. 



CHENOPODIACE^E GOOSEFOOT FAMILY 



Atriplexpatula, L. var. hastata, (L.) Gray. 



Green Halberd-leaved Orach. 

 August-September 



Atriplex: from Greek for the Orach. 

 Patula: from Latin meaning spreading. 

 Hastata: from Latin for halberd-shaped. 



THE PREFERRED HABITAT: waste places and brackish 

 marshes. 



THE PLANT: erect or nearly so, one foot high or taller; the 

 stem branched, pale green, scurfy. 



THE LEAVES: mostly pale green; alternate or some of 

 them opposite; variable but at least the lower broadly 

 halberd-shaped, the basal lobes divergent; acuminate at 

 the apex; usually narrowed at the base; slender-petioled; 

 often coarsely and irregularly toothed. 



THE FLOWERS: of two kinds, the staminate and pistillate 

 sometimes united and sometimes separate, but growing in 

 rather slender spikes. 



THE FRUIT: called an utricle (that is one-seeded and 

 bladder-shaped) . 



An unalluring pale green plant of the shores and brack- 

 ish meadows. If it is noticed, it is easy to identify by 

 its short and slender spike of tiny green flowers and by its 

 halberd-shaped leaves. 



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