A TRIPLEX 
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Subgenus 1. EU-A TRIPLEX 
Ell-Atriplex C. A. Meyer in Ledebour FI. Alt. iv, 305 (1833) as a tribe, including sect. Schizotheca ; 
Meisner PI. Vac. Gen. i, 319 (1836—43); Volkens in Engler und Prantl, Pflanzenfam. iii, pt. i a, 65 (1893); 
Atriplex Gaertner De Fruct. i, 361, t. 75, fig. 8 (1788) as a genus. 
For characters, see page 168. 
Sections of Eu- A triplex 
Section I. # Dichospermum (see below). Annual herbs. Flowers dimorphic; — (1) about a 
quarter of them without bracteoles but with a perianth of 4 — 5 segments and with horizontal 
seeds ; (2) and the remainder with no perianth and with vertical seeds. Bracteoles , when present, 
eventually large (5 — 10 mm. in diameter), free almost to the base, ovate to suborbicular. 
Section II. # Paniculatae (p. 170). Shrubs or undershrubs, very mealy. Inflorescence spicate, 
leafless, dense or interrupted. Flowers dioecious or hemi-dioecious. Bracteoles feebly united below, 
coriaceous. 
Section III. Teutliopsis (p. 170). Annuals. Stems green with whitish or reddish stripes. 
Bracteoles united only in the lower portion, except in A. glabriuscula where they are united 
half-way up, remaining herbaceous or becoming slightly hardened in A. glabriuscula. 
Section IV. Obionopsis (p. 179). Annuals. Stems whitish or pale brown, occasionally with 
red patches. Bracteoles united up to the middle, hardened in the lower half. 
Section I. *DICH OSPERMUM 
*Dichospermum Du Mortier Ft. Belg. 21 (1827); Westerlund in Linnaea vi, new ser. 138 (1876); 
Volkens in Engler und Prantl, Pflanzenfam. iii, pt. i a, 65 (1893). 
For characters, see above. Only British species: — *A. hortensis. 
I. *ATRIPLEX HORTENSIS. Garden Orach 
A. sativa alba Gerard Herball 256 (1597) including A. sativa purpurea. 
Atriplex hortensis L. Sp. PI. 1053 0753 ); Bentham Handb. Brit. FI. 442 (1858); Ascherson und Graebner 
FI. Nordostd. Flachl. 284 (1898); Rouy FI. France xii, 27 (1910). 
leones : — Beck in Reichenbach Icon, xxiv, 260. 
Exsiccata : — Ahlberg; Herb. FI. Ingric. ix, 521. 
Annual, slightly mealy. Stem erect, 3 — 15 dm. high, stout, branched, green with yellowish or 
reddish ridges. Petioles' about 2 — 3 cm. long. Laminae of the lower leaves large (up to 20 cm. 
long and 1 2 broad), subtriangular or ovate, more or less subcordate at the base, entire or with 
shallow dentitions, apex obtuse, dull above, only slightly mealy below. Inflorescence of terminal 
and axillary compound spikes. Partial inflorescences few-flowered, remote (usually about 5 mm. 
apart). Flowers in August. Fruiting bracts large (about 10 mm. long and 9 broad), broadly ovate to 
suborbicular, entire. Seeds either large (up to 4 mm. in diameter) and laterally compressed, or smaller 
(about 2 mm. in diameter) and dorsally compressed ; September. 
A. hortensis is a very variable plant, especially as regards colour and the shape of the leaves. Of the colour-forms of 
the plant, Miller ( Gard . Diet. ed. 8 (1768)) states that one “is of a deep green [= forma typica Beck loc. eit.\, another of a 
dark purple [= forma ruberrima Beck loc. cit\ and a third ” has “ green leaves and purple borders ” [= forma rubra Beck 
loc. «'/.]. Miller continues: — during the “forty years [in] which I have cultivated these sorts, I have never observed them to 
vary.” We are not aware that any morphological characters are definitely correlated with the development of anthocyanin. 
Colour-forms such as the preceding occur in a very large number of species; and systematic botanists are inconsistent in 
giving names to some of them and not to others. 
British examples of this species have sometimes been erroneously named Atriplex nitens (-A. sagittata Borkh. Rhein. 
Mag. 477 (1793)): this is a plant of central Europe, extending to Tibet, and occurring adventitiously in western Europe. 
Specimens in herb. H. C. Watson (in Herb. Kew.) prove that Bromfield’s record of A. ?iitens (vide Phytol. ii, 330 (1845) 
and FI. Vect. 426 (1856)) really refers to A. hortensis. 
Cultivated in southern England where it sometimes occurs as a garden escape, as a weed, and also 
adventitiously, as in Jersey, the Isle of Wight, Surrey, Middlesex, Essex, Cambridgeshire, Worcestershire, and 
Denbighshire. Bromfield (FI. Vect. p. 426 (1856)) said that, in 1845, it occurred “on the shore between Ryde 
and Binstead at intervals, for more than a quarter of a mile ” (= 4 decametres). 
M. II. 
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