Jepson eFlora: Taxon page
Vascular Plants of California
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Suaeda nigra

BUSH SEEPWEED


Higher Taxonomy
Family: ChenopodiaceaeView DescriptionDichotomous Key
Common Name: GOOSEFOOT FAMILY
Habit: Annual to shrub; hairs simple, stellate, or glandular; plants in several genera scaly, mealy, or powdery from collapsed glands; monoecious, dioecious, with bisexual flowers, or with both bisexual and unisexual flowers. Stem: occasionally fleshy. Leaf: blade simple, generally alternate, occasionally fleshy or reduced to scales, veins pinnate; stipules 0. Inflorescence: raceme, spike, catkin-like, spheric head, axillary clusters of flowers, 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, generally green; calyx parts (1)3--5, or 0 in pistillate flowers, free or fused basally (or +- throughout), leaf-like in texture, membranous, or fleshy, deciduous or not, often strongly modified in fruit; corolla 0; stamens 1--5, opposite sepals, filaments free, equal; anthers 4-chambered; ovary superior (1/2-inferior), chamber 1; ovule 1; styles, stigmas 1--4 (or stigmas sessile). Fruit: achene or utricle, generally falling 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.
Genera In Family: 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. Note: Nitrophila treated in Amaranthaceae, Sarcobatus treated in Sarcobataceae. Key to genera revised by Elizabeth H. Zacharias to incorporate Extriplex and Stutzia, 2 genera segregated from Atriplex. Native spp. of Kochia now treated in Neokochia. Chenopodiaceae often treated now within a more broadly circumscribed Amaranthaceae (Morales-Briones et al. 2021).
eFlora Treatment Author: Mihai Costea, family description, key to genera, revised by Thomas J. Rosatti & Elizabeth H. Zacharias, except as noted
Scientific Editor: Bruce G. Baldwin, David J. Keil, Thomas J. Rosatti, Margriet Wetherwax.
Genus: SuaedaView DescriptionDichotomous Key


Common Name: SEABLITE, SEEPWEED
Habit: Annual to shrub, glabrous to hairy. Leaf: generally alternate; blade entire, cylindric to adaxially flattened or completely flattened, fleshy, generally glaucous, tip acute [obtuse to round]. Inflorescence: cyme; clusters sessile, generally in panicles of spikes; bracts leaf-like to reduced; bractlets subtending flowers 1--3, minute, membranous; flowers 1--12 per cluster. Flower: generally bisexual; calyx radial, bilateral, or asymmetric, lobes 5, generally fleshy, rounded, hooded, keeled, horned, or wing-margined; ovary +- lenticular, rounded, conic or pear-shaped, neck occasionally narrowed, stigmas 2--4(5). Fruit: enclosed in calyx. Seed: horizontal or vertical, lenticular or flat, of 2 kinds in some species.
Etymology: (Ancient Arabic name)
eFlora Treatment Author: H. Jochen Schenk & Wayne R. Ferren, Jr.
Reference: Ferren & Schenk 2003 FNANM 4:390--398
Suaeda nigra (Raf.) J.F. Macbr.
NATIVE
Habit: Subshrub, shrub, or occasionally annual, 2--15 dm, glabrous to hairy, glaucous. Stem: spreading to erect, several from base, base generally woody; branches spreading, herbaceous stems shiny, green to yellow-brown or red. Leaf: ascending to wide-spreading, generally not overlapping; petiole 0--1 mm; blade 5--30 mm, +- cylindric to flat, linear to narrowly lanceolate, base narrow, yellow-green to red. Inflorescence: generally open, branches thin, 0.4--2 mm diam; bracts generally < leaves; flowers 1--12 per cluster, generally on distal stems. Flower: generally bisexual, radial, 0.7--2 mm; calyx lobes rounded; ovary +- pear-shaped, stigmas 2--3, hairy-papillate. Seed: horizontal or vertical, 0.5--2 mm, lenticular, shiny, black. Chromosomes: 2n=18.
Ecology: Alkaline, saline habitats in interior and desert, occasionally coastal; Elevation: < 1600 m. Bioregional Distribution: GV, CCo, SnFrB, SW, GB, D; Distribution Outside California: to western Canada, Texas, Mexico. Flowering Time: May--Sep
Synonyms: Suaeda moquinii (Torr.) Greene
Unabridged Synonyms: Suaeda fruticosa (L.) Forssk., misappl.; Suaeda torreyana var. ramosissima (Standl.) Munz; Suaeda torreyana S. Watson var. torreyana
Jepson eFlora Author: H. Jochen Schenk & Wayne R. Ferren, Jr.
Reference: Ferren & Schenk 2003 FNANM 4:390--398
Index of California Plant Names (ICPN; linked via the Jepson Online Interchange)

Previous taxon: Suaeda esteroa
Next taxon: Suaeda occidentalis

Botanical illustration including Suaeda nigrabotanical illustration including Suaeda nigra


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Citation for this treatment: H. Jochen Schenk & Wayne R. Ferren, Jr. 2012, Suaeda nigra, in Jepson Flora Project (eds.) Jepson eFlora, https://ucjeps.berkeley.edu/eflora/eflora_display.php?tid=45847, accessed on October 06, 2024.

Citation for the whole project: Jepson Flora Project (eds.) 2024, Jepson eFlora, https://ucjeps.berkeley.edu/eflora/, accessed on October 06, 2024.

Suaeda nigra
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©2011 Neal Kramer
Suaeda nigra
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©2015 Neal Kramer
Suaeda nigra
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©2016 Steve Matson
Suaeda nigra
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©2016 Keir Morse
Suaeda nigra
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©2010 Steve Matson

More photos of Suaeda nigra
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Geographic subdivisions for Suaeda nigra:
GV, CCo, SnFrB, SW, GB, D
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map of distribution 1

(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 occurrence).






 

Data provided by the participants of the  Consortium of California Herbaria.

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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.
Yellow markers indicate records that may provide evidence for eFlora range revision or may have georeferencing or identification issues.
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CCH collections by month Flowering-Fruiting Monthly Counts

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).