FLOWERING PLANTS AND FERNS OF ARIZONA 267 



16. Chenopodium arizonicum Standi., North Amer. Fl. 21: 19. 1916. 

 Pinal and Pima Counties, 4,000 to 7,800 feet. Known only from 

 Arizona, where the type was collected in foothills of the Santa Rita 

 Mountains {Griffiths 5982). 



3. CYCLOLOMA 



Annual herbs with diffusely branched stems; leaves coarsely sinuate- 

 dentate; inflorescence a panicle of interrupted spikes; flowers sessile; 

 perianth 5-lobed, in fruit developing a thin, horizontal, irregularly 

 denticulate wing; stamens 5; utricle depressed; seed horizontal. 



Plant becoming a "tumbleweed." The Indians made mush and 

 cakes from the ground-up seeds. 



1. Cycloloma atriplicifolium (Spreng.) Coult., Torrev Bot. Club Mem. 

 5: 143. 1894. 



Salsola atriplicifolia Spreng., Xachtr. Bot. Gart. Halle 1: 35. 

 1801. 



Navajo and Coconino Counties, also near Tempe (Maricopa County , 

 1,100 to 6,000 feet. Indiana to Manitoba, south to Texas and 



Arizona. 



4. MONOLEPIS. Patata, patota 



Annual, slightly succulent, nearly glabrous herb; stems low, diffuse 

 or prostrate; flowers in small axillary clusters; perianth reduced to a 

 single persistent segment; stamen 1; utricle compressed laterally. 



The plant affords good spring pasturage for cattle and is used as 

 greens by the Indians, who also make pinole from the seeds. 



1. Monolepis nuttalliana (Schult.) Greene, Fl. Francisc. 1G8. 1891. 



Blitum nuttallianum Schult., Mant. 1: 65. 1822. 



Apache County to Pima and Yuma Counties, commonly 3,000 feet 

 or lower, abundant in southern Arizona, January to April. Manitoba 

 and Alberta, south to Texas, Sonora, and California. 



5. AT R I PL EX. 40 Saltbush, orache 



Plants annual or perennial, herbaceous or shrubby, mostly mealy; 

 leaves commonly alternate, entire to sinuate-dentate; flowers monoe- 

 cious or dioecious, in glomerules, these axillary or (the staminate ones 

 especially) forming terminal spikes or panicles; perianth of the stami- 

 nate flowers 3- to 5-parted; pistillate flowers without a perianth, sub- 

 tended by 2 connivent bracts (bractlets), these in fruit enlarged, 

 usually more or less connate, often dentate or tuberculate. 



Most of the species are very salt tolerant, and flower in summer and 

 early autumn. The shrubby species are good browse, especially in 

 winter. Some of the herbaceous species, also, are grazed by livestock. 

 The salty taste of the plants probably increases their palatability. 

 The fruits are very nutritious. The Indians used to depend on the 

 saltbushes as a source of meal, which was made from the parched seeds 

 and. like the pinole made from mesquite pods, sometimes was drunk 



*» Reference: Hai.l. H. M., and Clements, F. E. the phvlogexetic method in taxonomy, the 

 genus atriplex. Carnegie Inst. Wash. Pub. 326: 235-346, 1923. The species are 



arranged here i:i the sequence used by Hall and Clements. 



