Jepson Herbarium
		University of California, Berkeley

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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

Generally monoecious annual, to generally dioecious shrub, generally scaly.
Leaf: generally alternate, distal ± reduced; blade entire to variously dentate or lobed.
Inflorescence: axillary or terminal.
Staminate inflorescence: spheric cluster to spike-like or panicle; bracts 0.
Pistillate inflorescence: cluster to spike- or panicle-like, occasionally 1; bracts 2 per fruit, enlarged in age, free to variously fused, generally compressed, generally sessile, falling with fruit (or not).
Staminate flower: calyx lobes 3–5; stamens 3–5.
Pistillate flower: calyx generally ± 0; stigmas 2.
Seed: generally erect.
± 250 species: temperate to subtrop worldwide. (Latin: name derived from Greek) [Welsh 2003 FNANM 4:322–381] Generally in alkaline or saline soils; some weedy; some accumulate selenium. Bract descriptions refer to 2 bracts surrounding flower, enlarging in fruit. Australian Atriplex crassipes J.M. Black possibly in SCo. In revised taxonomy, too late for full treatment here, Atriplex californica, Atriplex joaquinana moved to Extriplex, Atriplex covillei to Stutzia, both new genera [Zacharias & Baldwin 2010 Syst Bot 35(4):839–857].

Annual 1–3 dm.
Stem: 1–few from base; branches decumbent to erect, stiff, generally gray-scaly, in age glabrous, straw-colored.
Leaf: blade 8–20 mm, elliptic to ovate, base tapered to ± obtuse; distal leaves gray-scaly.
Pistillate inflorescence: bracts fused proximally, wide- deltate to ± round.
Seed: 1–1.5 mm, dark brown. [Online Interchange]

Stem: branches ascending to erect.
Pistillate inflorescence: bracts in fruit 2.5–4 mm, 2.5–4 mm wide, ± compressed to spheric, dentate, smooth to tubercled.
Seed: 1–1.5 mm, dark brown.
2n=18. Dried ponds, alkaline soils; < 430 m. San Joaquin Valley.

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Next taxon: Atriplex coulteri

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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	Red area (if present) is the part of the bioregion lying between the upper and lower elevation limits of the taxon; 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 have georeferencing or identification issues.
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.	Map made in collaboration with Scott Loarie. Data provided by the participants of the Consortium of California Herbaria. View all CCH records   CCH collections by month Duplicates counted once; synonyms included. Species do not include records of infraspecific taxa. Blue line denotes Manual flowering time.