Figure 25. --Sheep grazing on winter fat -shadscale saltbush in Pine Valley, 



County^ Utah. 



Mi I lard 



Gray/a— Common Floral Characteristics 



Grayia, like Atriplex , has staminate flowers of four or five sepals, four or five 

 stamens, and pistillate flowers that lack both sepals and petals but have pistils en- 

 closed by pairs of bracts. The margins of each pair of bracts are united from base to 

 apex except for a minute apical opening. Collotzi (1966) on the basis of a morphologi- 

 cal, embryological , and chromatographic study recommended that Grayia be reclassified 

 as Atriplex. From our observations, we believe this would be appropriate; but, because 

 of the long past usage, we suggest that the present nomenclature remain unchanged. 



Grayia brandegei (spineless hopsage) 



Spineless hopsage is a subshrub to 1 meter tall (fig. 34) with linear-oblanceolate 

 to obovate leaf blades 1.5 to 4.5 cm long (Collotzi 1966). 



The flowering period varies between mid-June and mid-August. Seed matures in late 

 September through early October. Utricles (fig. 35) persist on the plants until January 

 and some may last through the winter. These are often removed by small mammals and 

 birds. Cleaned seeds of Grayia brandegei average 189,950 per pound (419/g) (Plummer and 

 others 1968) . 



Hybridization: Drobnick and Plummer (1966) reported occurrence of natural hybrids 

 of spineless hopsage with shadscale saltbush and cuneate saltbush. Viable seeds have 

 been obtained by artificially pollinating fourwing saltbush pistillate flowers with 

 pollen from spineless hopsage. This cross of all those attempted on fourwing saltbush 

 yielded the highest percentage of viable seed; however, of the eight branches treated. 



27 



