2 BULLETIN 617, U. S. DEPARTMENT OF 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. 7 
DESCRIPTION OF THE PLANT.! 
The Australian saltbush is a semiwoody, prostrate perennial, 
forming a dense mass 6 to 12 inches thick. (Fig. 1.) The leaves are 
Te 
ee 
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Fic. 1.—A plant of Australian saltbush (Atriplex semibaccata) grown in a grass rarden. 
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 
17In newspapers and popular magazines, the Rosy saltbush (Atriplex rosea) has been confused with the 
Australian saltbush (A triplex semibaccata). Rosy saltbush isan 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 Westit was found in Wyoming in 1897 and in Oregon 
and Washingtonin 1901. Since thenit has spread over most of the area West 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 
browseit 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. 
