FLOWERING PLANTS AND FERXS OF ARIZONA 203 



10. Flowers unisexual, monoecious or dioecious (or some of them 



perfect in Eurotia), the pistillate flowers with bractleta and 



usually without a perianth; bracelets becoming enlarged and 



enclosing the fruit; plants mostly woody, at least at base (12). 



12. Pubescence entirely or chiefly of simple inflated hairs, these 



collapsing and scurflike when dry (13). 



13. Bractlets separate, at least near the apex; seeds all 



vertical, or both vertical and horizontal on the same 



plant 5. Atriplex. 



13. Bractlets united up to the depressed apex; seeds all hori- 



zontal 6. Zuckia. 



12. Pubescence of branched, scarcely inflated hairs; bractlets 

 united to the middle or higher; seeds vertical (14). 



14. Fruiting bractlets very thin and flat, glabrous or scurfy- 



pubescent, winged, more or less retuse at apex; herbage 



puberulent or glabrate 7. Gratia. 



14. Fruiting bractlets forming a 2-beaked tube, densely long- 

 villous, not winged; herbage conspicuously and densely 

 stellate-pubescent 8. Eurotia. 



1. XITROPHILA 



A glabrous perennial herb; stems numerous, tufted, not more than 

 30 cm. long; leaves opposite, fleshy, narrow, semiterete; flowers perfect, 

 axillary, conspicuous for the family, pink or white; perianth segments 

 and the stamens usually 5; style larger than the ovary, persistent. 



1. Nitrophila occidentalis (Nutt.) S. Wats, in King, Geol. Expl. 40th 

 Par. 5: 297. 1871. 



Halimocnemis occidentalis Nutt. ex Moq. in DC, Prodr. 13 2 : 

 279. 1849. 



Gila Crossing, Pinal County. 1.200 feet (Plumb 75. Peebles 13232), 

 in moist saline soil. April to May. Oregon to Arizona and California. 



2. CHEXOPODIUM. 39 Goo.sefoot, pigweed 



Plants herbaceous, annual or perennial, often mealy, sometimes 

 glandular-pubescent; leaves alternate, with entire to pinnatifid blades; 

 flowers green, perfect, in glomerules, these axillary or forming spikes 

 or panicles: perianth herbaceous or fleshy, with 2 to 5 lobes or seg- 

 ments; stamens 2 to 5. 



Plants mostly weedlike. Several of the species occurring in Arizona 

 are said to be eaten freely by sheep and cattle. The Indians use the 

 leaves for greens and the seeds of certain species for making mush 

 and cakes, sometimes mixing them with corn meal. C. ambrosioides 

 yields oil of chenopodium, distilled from the leaves and stems, which 

 is a powerful anthelmintic. 



Key to the species 



1. Perianth at maturity bright red, fleshy; flowers in dense glomerules, these in 



elongate spikes 1. C. capitatum. 



1. Perianth not bright red at maturity (2). 



2. Foliage and inflorescence glandular-pubescent or resinous-granular, not 



farinose; plants strong scented; leaf blades (some or all of them) coarsely 



toothed or pinnatifid (3). 



3. Fevers densely glomerate, the glomerules in elongate, leafy, axillary 



spikes; odor fetid 2. C. ambrosioides. 



34 Reference: Aellex. P. beitrag zvr systematik der chenopodivm-artex amerikas. Ropert. 

 Spec. Xovarum Re^mi Veg. 26: 31-G4, 119-160. 1929. 



