Atriplex gardneri (Nuttall's Atriplex) - photos and description
Stem leaf
in above photo
General: A subshrub having stems with woody bases, and a decumbent growth habit. Foliage scurfy giving it a silvery green colour.
Flowers: Inflorescence in dense terminal spikes and spikes in leaf axils. Plants with flowers of different sexes on different plants (dioecious), staminate flowers yellow in colour and shown in above photo.
Leaves: Leaves alternate, linear-oblong, with short petioles, leaf highlighted in photo above was 27 mm long (including petiole) by 9 mm wide.
Height: Height listed in Budd's Flora to 75 cm, we measured plants to 33 cm tall.
Habitat: Badlands, and alluvial flats on the southern prairie.
Abundance: Common.
Origin: Native.
Synonym: Listed in some of the guides we use as Atriplex nuttallii.
When and where photographed: Took the above photos July 26th, clay badlands, east block of Grasslands National Park, about 300 km southwest of our home in Regina, SK.