
Amaranthaceae ‘ 145 
_to base of stamens: stigmas 2, subulate, exserted, papillose. In dry or alkaline soil. (Gk. 
sarkos—flesh, batos—a bramble; referring to the fleshy leaves and thorny stems.) E. 
S. vermiculatus Torr. 
SUAEDA (Dondia) BLITE 
Herbs or low shrubs, annual or perennial. Leaves alternate, narrowly linear, thick 
or nearly terete, entire, sessile. Flowers perfect or polygamous, bracted, solitary or clus- 
tered in the axils of the upper leaves. Perianth 5-parted or -cleft; segments fleshy, 
sometimes keeled or slightly winged in fruit, enclosing the utricle. Stamens 5. Styles 
usually 2, rarely 3—4, short, rather stout. Seed flat, smooth, black. In saline or alka- 
fine soil. (Origin?) 
A. Leaves widest just above their base. 
B. Plants of the seashore, annual; fruiting perianth without crest or appendages. 
S. maritima Dum. (Sea Blite) 
BB. i Plants of the plains, perennial; fruiting perianth with a crest on | or more of 
its lobes. E. S. depressa Wats. 
AA. Leaves narrowed at base. 
C. Perianth in fruit with a transverse lobed wing; annual. E. 
S. occidentalis Wats. 
CC. Perianth in fruit without appendages or merely with a keel. 
LD. Annual; seed 0.9—1.1 mm. wide. E. 
S. diffusa Wats. 
DD. Perennial; seed 0.6—0.7 mm. wide. E. 
S. intermedia Wats. 
SALSOLA RUSSIAN THISTLE 
Herbs, annual (ours) or perennial, bushy-branched. Leaves alternate, rigid, prickly- 
pointed, rather fleshy. Flowers perfect, sessile, 2-bracted, solitary in the leaf-axils or 
sometimes several together. Perianth 5-parted; segments in fruit appendaged by a wide 
horizontal membranous wing, enclosing the fruit. Stamens 5. Ovary depressed; styles 2. 
Utricle flat. (Diminutive of L. salsus—salty; because most species grow in salty soil.) 
W.E. (S. pestifer; S. kali tragus and S. tragus for our region.) 
S. kali tenuifolia Mey. 
AMARANTHACEAE Pigweed Family 
Herbs (ours) or shrubs. Leaves alternate (ours) or opposite, simple, mostly en- 
tire. Flowers perfect (not ours) or monoicous or dioicous or polygamous, small, green 
or white or purplish, with scarious bractlets, variously grouped, usually in terminal spikes 
or axillary heads. Perianth herbaceous or membranous, scarious, 2—5-parted; segments 
equal or the inner ones smaller, distinct or united at base. Stamens 1|—5, mostly opposite 
the perianth segments, hypogynous; filaments distinct or somewhat united. Ovary ovoid 
or subglobose, superior, |-celled; styles short or elongated or none; stigmas |—3. Fruit 
a utricle. Seed | (ours), mostly smooth. 
AMARANTHUS PIGWEED 
Annual, erect or diffusely spreading. Leaves pinnately veined, undulate or crisped or 
entire, petioled. Flowers monoicous or dioicous or polygamous, green or purplish, mostly 
with 3—5 bractlets, in dense terminal spikes or axillary clusters. Stamens 2—5. Styles 
