Common Name: AMARANTH FAMILY Habit: Annual to subshrub; monoecious and/or dioecious; occasionally spiny; hairs simple (branched). Leaf: blade simple, alternate or opposite, margins entire or serrate; veins pinnate; stipules 0. Inflorescence: axillary or terminal; 3-flowered cymes in dense spikes, heads or panicles; bracts 0 or 1--5, persistent; bractlets 0--2. Flower: bisexual or unisexual, small, green (+- white), yellow or purple; perianth parts 0 or (1)3--5, free or fused basally, scarious or hardened, persistent; stamens 1--5, opposite perianth parts, free or basally fused as a tube, generally unequal, occasionally alternate with appendages on stamen tubes (pseudostaminodes), anthers 2- or 4-chambered; ovary superior, chamber 1; ovule 1 (2--many); style (0)1--3, stigmas 1--3(5). Fruit: utricle; generally with persistent perianth or bracts. Seed: 1 [2+], small, lenticular to spheric, smooth or dotted to striate or tubercled. Genera In Family: +- 75 genera, 900 species: cosmopolitan, especially disturbed, arid, saline or alkaline soils; some cultivated for food, ornamental; many naturalized, ruderal or agricultural weeds. Note: Amaranthaceae including Chenopodiaceae by some. Polycnemoideae, represented in California by Nitrophila, formerly considered subfamily of Chenopodiaceae, but needs further research. Guilleminea densa (Willd.) Moq. var. aggregata Uline & W.L. Bray is a waif. Froelichia gracilis (Hook.) Moq. possibly naturalized. eFlora Treatment Author: Mihai Costea, except as noted Scientific Editor: Douglas H. Goldman, Bruce G. Baldwin.
Habit: Perennial herb, glabrous, rhizomed. Stem: decumbent to erect, +- ribbed. Leaf: opposite, sessile to clasping, linear to ovate, fleshy. Inflorescence: axillary, flowers 1--3; bractlets 1 or 2 per flower. Flower: calyx 5(7)-parted, enclosing fruit, papery, lobes erect, overlapping, ovate, back ribbed, persistent in fruit; stamens 5, included; style slender, = ovary, stigmas 2. Fruit: indehiscent, +- 2 mm. Seed: vertical, lenticular, black or brown. Chromosomes: x=9. Etymology: (Greek: soda loving) Note: In Chenopodiaceae in TJM (1993). eFlora Treatment Author: Margriet Wetherwax, Dieter H. Wilken & Noel H. Holmgren Reference: [Müller & Borsch 2005 Ann Missouri Bot Gard 92:66--102]
Nitrophila occidentalis (Moq.) S. Watson
NATIVE Stem: decumbent to erect. Leaf: sessile, occasionally scale-like on decumbent stems. Inflorescence: bracts 2; flowers 1, sessile, or 2--3, short-pedicelled. Flower: calyx 2--3.3 mm, pink, white in age. Seed: +- 1 mm, black or brown, dull. Ecology: Moist, alkaline soils; Elevation: < 2100 m. Bioregional Distribution: KR/CaRH (Shasta Valley), GV, SCo, w PR, GB, DMoj; Distribution Outside California: to eastern Oregon, Utah, northern Mexico. Flowering Time: May--Oct Jepson eFlora Author: Margriet Wetherwax, Dieter H. Wilken & Noel H. Holmgren Reference: [Müller & Borsch 2005 Ann Missouri Bot Gard 92:66--102] Index of California Plant Names (ICPN; linked via the Jepson Online Interchange) Previous taxon: Nitrophila mohavensis Next taxon: Tidestromia
Botanical illustration including Nitrophila occidentalis
Citation for this treatment: Margriet Wetherwax, Dieter H. Wilken & Noel H. Holmgren 2012, Nitrophila occidentalis, in Jepson Flora Project (eds.) Jepson eFlora, https://ucjeps.berkeley.edu/eflora/eflora_display.php?tid=34675, accessed on April 19, 2024.
Citation for the whole project: Jepson Flora Project (eds.) 2024, Jepson eFlora, https://ucjeps.berkeley.edu/eflora/, accessed on April 19, 2024.
Geographic subdivisions for Nitrophila occidentalis:
KR/CaRH (Shasta Valley), GV, SCo, w PR, GB, DMoj
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(Note: any qualifiers in the taxon distribution description, such as 'northern', 'southern', 'adjacent' etc., are not reflected in the map above, and in some cases indication of a taxon in a subdivision is based on a single collection or author-verified occurence).
Data provided by the participants of the
Consortium of California Herbaria.
MAP LEGEND View all CCH records All markers link to CCH specimen records. The original determination is shown in the popup window.
Blue markers indicate specimens that map to one of the expected Jepson geographic subdivisions (see left map). Purple markers indicate specimens collected from a garden, greenhouse, or other non-wild location.
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CCH collections by month
Duplicates counted once; synonyms included.
Species do not include records of infraspecific taxa, if there are more than 1 infraspecific taxon in CA.
Blue line denotes eFlora flowering time (fruiting time in some monocot genera).
