page_title: Atriplex
section_title: Description
hierarchical_section_title: Atriplex / Description
caption_attribution_description: The laterally flattened (compressed) flowers are subtended by a pair of unelaborated bracts.
context_page_description: Atriplex is a plant genus of 250–300 species, known by the common names of saltbush and orache. It belongs to the subfamily Chenopodioideae of the family Amaranthaceae s.l..
  The genus is quite variable and widely distributed. It includes many desert and seashore plants and halophytes, as well as plants of moist environments.
  The generic name originated in Latin and was applied by Pliny the Elder to the edible oraches. The name saltbush derives from the fact that the plants retain salt in their leaves; they are able to grow in areas affected by soil salination.
context_section_description: The species in genus Atriplex are annual or perennial herbs, subshrubs, or shrubs. The plants are often covered with bladderlike hairs, that later collapse and form a silvery, scurfy or mealy surface, rarely with elongate trichomes. The alternate or rarely opposite leaves are petiolate or sessile, often persistent or tardily deciduous. The flat or slightly fleshy leaf blades are either entire, or serrate, or lobed and very variable in shape.
  The inflorescences consist of axillary or terminal spikes or spicate panicles, or axillary clusters of glomeruled flowers. The flowers are unisexual, some species are monoecious, others dioecious. Male flowers consist of 3-5 perianth lobes and 3-5 stamens. Female flowers are usually lacking a perianth, but are enclosed by 2 foliaceous bracteoles, and contain an ovary with a short style and 2 stigmas.
  In fruit, the bracteoles can enlarge, thicken or become appendaged. They enclose the fruit tightly, without becoming connate to it. The pericarp is adnate to the vertically orientated, flattened seed. The seed coat is thick, leathery or hardening. The annular embryo surrounds the perisperm.
  The chromosome base number is x = 9, except for Atriplex lanfrancoi, which is x=10.
  A few Atriplex species are C₃-plants, but most species are C₄-plants, with a characteristic leaf anatomy (kranz anatomy).
caption: Atriplex patula, female flower with bracteoles and seed
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