2 BULLETIN 617, U. S. DEPARTMENT OE AGRICULTURE. 



coastal region about Los Angeles and San Diego seem to have done 

 exceptionally well, and from these plantings it promptly escaped, 

 spreading over range lands and waste places throughout the coastal 

 area and islands from the Mexican border on the south to the Salinas 

 Valley on the north. There it constitutes a real asset, providing 

 pasturage at a season when most other forage plants are dormant. 

 While the actual outcome of the introduction of Australian saltbush is 

 very different from early high hopes and predictions, the facts justify 

 the conclusion that its introduction has proved a benefit to those 

 areas where it has become naturalized. 



DESCRIPTION OF THE PLANT. 1 



The Australian saltbush is a semiwoody, prostrate perennial, 

 forming a dense mass 6 to 12 inches thick. (Fig. 1.) The leaves are 



Fig. 1.— A plant of Australian saltbush (Atriplex semibaccata) grown in a grass rjardsn. 



linear, 1 inch long, and coarsely toothed along the margins. The 

 seed is small and inclosed in a pair of fleshy foliaceous bracts which 

 become red as the fruit matures. The plants are perhaps long-lived 



i In newspapers and popular magazines, the Rosy saltbush (Atriplex rosea) has been confused with the 

 Australian saltbush (Atriplex semibaccata). Rosy saltbush is an annual, native to Europe, and much resem- 

 bles in appearance and habits the common tumbleweed. In the last 15 years it has spread with great ra- 

 pidity over nearly all of the semiarid States. It prefers alkaline soil, but spreads as a weed on all farm lands, 

 much as does the Russian thistle. In the East it is a rather rare weed in waste places and appeared in 

 New York and New Jersey as early as 1879. In the West it was found in Wyoming in 1897 and in Oregon 

 and Washington in 1901. Since then it has spread over most of the area v jst of the one hundredth meridian 

 and in many places is found in such great abundance as to be a troublesome weed. While this plant is 

 usually considered as a weed only, it has some merit, as have most weeds. Sheep and other stock will 

 browse it when other and better feed is not available, but it is no better than tumbleweed or Russian thistle 

 in this respect. While it has some value as forage, it probably does not possess sufficient merit to justify 

 any one in purposely planting it on his farm. 



