57.
Atriplex spinifera
J. F. Macbride, Contr. Gray Herb. 53: 11. 1918.
Spiny saltbush
Shrubs,
dioecious, erect, intricately much branched, mainly 3-15 dm; branchlets terete, becoming rigid and spinose.
Leaves
short petiolate to sessile; blade ovate-deltate to elliptic or spatulate, (5-)10-27 mm, entire or subhastate.
Staminate flowers
borne in small axillary glomerules.
Pistillate flowers
borne solitary or few in bract axils on short, spinose, lateral branchlets of a paniculate inflorescence.
Fruiting bracteoles
sessile or nearly so, body globose, connate, constricted below oblong to orbicular wings, 7-15 ×3.5-10 mm, entire or obscurely dentate, faces smooth to sparingly cristate.
Seeds
reddish brown, 2-2.8 mm.
Flowering summer-fall. Xeric saline substrates, with mixed salt desert shrubs; 30-1300 m; Calif.
Spiny saltbush apparently forms occasional hybrids with phases of
Atriplex canescens
, as indicated by the presence of wings on some of the fruiting bracteoles.
