54.
Atriplex hymenelytra
(Torrey) S. Watson, Proc. Amer. Acad. Arts. 9: 129. 1874.
Desert holly
Obione hymenelytra
Torrey in War Department [U.S.], Pacif. Railr. Rep. 4(5): 119. 1857
Shrubs
, dioecious, 3-15+ dm, as wide, unarmed.
Leaves
persistent, alternate, petiolate; blade greenish to silvery white, orbiculate to reniform or oval, 10-40 mm, as wide or wider, prominently dentate, teeth to 10 mm, permanently scurfy.
Staminate flowers
yellow to purple-brown, in clusters 3-4 mm thick, borne in panicles to 3 cm.
Pistillate flowers
borne in inflorescences similar to staminate ones.
Fruiting bracteoles
sessile, rather prominently veined, orbiculate to reniform, strongly compressed, 7-10 × 7-10 mm, thin, united at base, margin entire to crenate, glabrous, lacking processes.
Seeds
brown, 2 mm wide; radicle sublateral.
2
n
= 18.
Flowering spring. Warm desert shrub, on dry saline alluvial fans and hills; 80-1200 m; Ariz., Calif., Nev., Utah.
Atriplex hymenelytra
occurs with saltbush,
Larrea-Ambrosia
, ephedra, and yucca. This is a handsome, rounded shrub with silvery white foliage, sometimes contrasting strongly with the peculiar substrates on which it grows. Its relationships to other of the southwestern species are recondite, but possibly it is allied to
A. confertifolia
, with which C. A. Hanson (1962) suggested an affinity.
