20.
Atriplex amnicola
Paul G. Wilson, Fl. Australia. 4: 129, 322. 1984.
Swamp saltbush
Shrubs,
predominantly dioecious, mainly 10-15 dm.
Leaves
short petiolate; blade elliptic to narrowly oblong or narrowly hastate with short divaricate basal lobes, 10-25 mm, margin entire or remotely dentate, apex obtuse to acute.
Staminate flowers
in compact glomerules 5 mm thick, forming terminal spikes.
Pistillate flowers
in axillary clusters and forming short, dense terminal spikes.
Fruiting bracteoles
somewhat rhombic to semicircular, biconvex, 4-6 mm wide, with a short hard turbinate base, thick and hard throughout or with a herbaceous margin, lacking appendages.
Seeds
circular.
Flowering summer-fall. Sea beaches; 10 m; introduced; Calif.; Australia.
This is a singular, large, mostly dioecious shrub well established on the beach at Malibu, California. It produces abundant, hard, rhombic fruiting bracteoles. In its native western Australia, it occurs in coastal regions and inland along creeks and the outer margins of salt lakes.
