Kansas Wildflowers and Grasses - Four-wing saltbush

FOUR-WING SALTBUSH

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Atriplex canescens (Pursh ) Nutt.

Cimarron National Grassland, Morton County, Kansas

Height: 32-80 inches

Family: Amaranthaceae - Amaranth Family

Flowering Period: May, June, July, August

Trunks:

Shrubs, usually dioecious, rarely monoecious. Stems ascending to erect, much-branched from base, silvery-scurfy.

Leaves:

Cauline, alternate; petiolate or sessile; blade lanceolate to oblong or obovate, 1 to 1.8 inches long, .12 to .28 inch wide, base tapered, margins entire, apex obtuse to acute, surfaces silvery-scurfy.

Flowers:

Inflorescences axillary glomerules and/or terminal spikes or panicles. Flowers unisexual, staminate and pistillate on same or different plants. Staminate flowers .07 to .09 inch: tepals 3-5, connate basally; stamens (3-)5. Pistillate flowers: tepals 0; bracteoles 2, prominently 4-winged, .3 to 1 inch, herbaceous at maturity, margins entire to dentate, face smooth or reticulate; style 0; stigmas 2.

Fruit:

Fruits Bracteoles that persist and enlarge with age, enclosing ovary, usually indehiscent, not folded together along the long axis; seed 1, brown, .09 to .11 inch.

Habitat:

Canyons, rocky slopes, rock outcrops

Distribution:

Scattered in west 2/5 of Kansas

Origin:

Native

Uses:

Native Americans applied a poultice of leaves or flowers to ant bites; applied a poultice of warm, pulverized root to toothaches; and made the leaves into a soapy lather that was used to wash the hair and to treat itches or rashes. The Navajo used the young leaves and twigs to dye wool yellow.

Comments:

Atriplex, an ancient Latin name, and canescens , hoary. Kansas plants are the widespread var. canescens.

Four-wing saltbush staminate inflorescences