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CHENOPODIACEAE GOOSEFOOT FAMILY

Mihai Costea, family description, key to genera

Annual to shrub; hairs simple, stellate or glandular; plants generally scaly, mealy, or powdery from collapsed glands; generally monoecious.
Stem: occasionally fleshy.
Leaf: blade simple, generally alternate, occasionally fleshy or reduced to scales, veins pinnate; stipules 0.
Inflorescence: raceme, spike, catkin-like, spheric heads, or flowers 1; bracts 0–5, herbaceous, generally persistent or strongly modified in fruit, wings, tubercles or spines present or 0.
Flower: bisexual or unisexual, small, green; calyx parts (1)3–5, or 0 in pistillate flowers, free or fused basally, leaf-like in texture, membranous or fleshy, deciduous or not, generally strongly modified in fruit; corolla 0; stamens 1–5, opposite to calyx parts, filaments free, equal; anthers 4-chambered; ovary superior (1/2-inferior), chamber 1; ovule 1; styles, stigmas 1–4.
Fruit: achene or utricle, generally with persistent calyx or bracts.
Seed: 1, small, lenticular to spheric; seed coat smooth to finely dotted, warty, net-like, or prickly, margin occasionally winged.
100 genera, 1500 species: worldwide, especially deserts, saline or alkaline soils; some cultivated for food (Beta vulgaris subsp. vulgaris, beet, Swiss chard; Spinacia oleracea L., spinach; Chenopodium quinoa Willd., quinoa); and some worldwide, naturalized ruderal or noxious agricultural weeds. Nitrophila treated in Amaranthaceae, Sarcobatus treated in Sarcobataceae. —Scientific Editors: Douglas H. Goldman, Bruce G. Baldwin.

Key to Chenopodiaceae

SALSOLA

G. Frederic Hrusa

Annual to shrub.
Stem: simple to many-branched.
Leaf: generally reduced distally along stem, thread-like to ± cylindric, spine-tipped, in age generally thick, rigid.
Inflorescence: axillary; bracts 1–2; flowers generally 1 per axil.
Flower: bisexual; sepals 4–5, thickened in fruit, persistent, generally tubercled to winged; stamens generally 5, exserted, style branches generally 2, exserted.
Fruit: spheric to obovoid; tip ± depressed.
Seed: horizontal.
± 100 species: ± worldwide. (Latin: salty, from habitats) [Mosyakin 2003 FNANM 4:398–403; Hrusa & Gaskin 2008 Madroño 55:113–131] An alternative treatment as separate genera Kali (Salsola australis, Salsola gobicola, Salsola paulsenii, Salsola ryanii, Salsola tragus), Caroxylon (Salsola damascena), and Salsola (Salsola soda) has been proposed (Akhani et al. 2007 Int J Plant Sci 168:931–956).

Key to Salsola

S. tragus L. RUSSIAN THISTLE, TUMBLEWEED
NATURALIZED
Annual < 1.5 m, glabrous to bristly; when dead readily breaking at base, generally tumbling.
Stem: branched from base, branches wiry, longitudinally ribbed, generally red-striped.
Leaf: opposite to alternate below, deciduous, alternate above, 8–52 mm; in age leathery, upper leaf bases widening, base margin translucent, tip sharp-pointed to spiny, fused with opposite bract or not.
Inflorescence: bract surrounding fruit, ± cylindric, spiny, in age broad, thick, lower margin wing ± 0.5 mm, translucent.
Flower: sepals 2–5 mm, tips not stiff; anthers 0.6–1.3 mm.
Fruit: generally persistent; 2.9–8.4 mm diam including wings; wings 5, opaque, veins dark to pale, margins minutely toothed to unevenly scalloped (smooth), largest generally centrally notched, smallest linear to blunt- elliptic, sides ± parallel.
2n=36(54). Common. Disturbed places; < 2800 m. California; to eastern North America, Mexico; native to Eurasia. Extremely variable in habit, coloration, sepal wing shape, etc. Hybridizes with Salsola paulsenii. Jul–Oct {Noxious weed} [Online Interchange]
Unabridged synonyms: [Salsola iberica (Sennen & Pau) Botsch.; Salsola kali L. var. tenuifolia Tausch; Salsola pestifer A. Nelson]
Unabridged note: Most common in GV, CW, MP, SW, SNE, D; uncommon or rare elsewhere, generally as a waif.

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Citation for the whole project: Jepson Flora Project (eds.) [year] Jepson eFlora, http://ucjeps.berkeley.edu/IJM.html [accessed on month, day, year]
Citation for an individual treatment: [Author of taxon treatment] [year]. [Taxon name] in Jepson Flora Project (eds.) Jepson eFlora, [URL for treatment]. Accessed on [month, day, year].

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Bioregions in which taxon occurs Markers link to CCH specimen records. If the markers are obscured, reload the page [or change window size and reload]. Yellow markers indicate records that may provide evidence for eFlora range revision or may have georeferencing or identification issues.
map of distribution 1

Chart based on elevation range in Manual and elevations and coordinates of CCH records.
Data provided by the participants of the Consortium of California Herbaria.
Note: About half of the CCH records include both elevation and coordinates.
Data provided by the participants of the Consortium of California Herbaria.
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CCH collections by month

Duplicates counted once; synonyms included.
Species do not include records of infraspecific taxa.
Blue line denotes Manual flowering time.