Atriplex canescens (fourwing saltbush) 



Fourwing saltbush is a shrub usually from 0.5 to 2.0 meters tall (fig. 8). It 

 branches freely from the base, and the branches are usually quite brittle. Both the 

 young twigs and the leaves are gray green because of the white, scurfy vestiture. The 

 linear to oblanceolate or spatulate evergreen leaves are 1 to 4 cm long and 2 to 6 mm 

 wide. 



In fourwing saltbush populations he sampled, Hanson (1962) noted that as high as 

 3 percent of the plants were monoecious; however, we have observed populations in which 

 the number of monoecious plants reached as high as 14 percent. A fe\-i populations may 

 have no monoecious plants. Pistillate flowers are small and inconspicuous with no 

 flower parts except pistils. Each pistil is enclosed by a pair of small bracts that 

 are united along their edges to form winglike expansions. In addition, each bract of 

 the pair has a wing down its middle; so the fruit (utricle) at maturity has a varying 

 prominence of four wings (fig. 9). There is a high degree of variation in this charac- 

 teristic, since some utricles are practically wingless. The yellow to red to brown 

 male flowers are borne in glomerules 2 to 3 mm wide. 



Fourwing saltbush blooms from May to July in the Upper Sonoran zone. In the Lower 

 Sonoran zone, blooming occurs from July to August. Increase in elevation within zones 

 delays flower development. 



Utricles mature 14 to 16 weeks after flowering. They are usually persistent and 

 can be harvested from mid-October through April (Benson and Darrow 1944; Plummer and 

 others 1966a) . Occasionally, utricles from the past two seasons can be found on 

 bushes growing on drier sites. Dewinged utricles of this shrub average 55,365 per 

 pound (122/g) (Plummer and others 1968) . The utricle wings are removed by hammer 

 milling and fanning. 



Figure 8 . —Pistillate fourwing saltbush showing highly branched habit and heavy utricle 

 production. 



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