Vegetation Around Las Vegas, Fourwing Saltbush (Atriplex canescens)

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Fourwing Saltbush (Atriplex canescens)
Shrubs Around Las Vegas, Vegetation Around Las Vegas

	General: Fourwing Saltbush (Atriplex canescens) is a rounded shrub with long, narrow gray-green, glandular leaves that are densely white-scaly. The leaves are also folded down the center. Plants are male or female (dioecious). Female plants in fruit are easy to recognize because the fruit has four large scales (the wings). Fourwing Saltbush is a fairly common or dominant component of shrub communities on alkaline and saline soils around desert playas and on desert flats in the Upper Sonoran (Mojave Desert Scrub) life zone. Fourwing Saltbush is also a fairly common in shrub communities on desert bajadas.
	Family: Goosefoot (Chenopodiaceae). Other Names: Shad-scale, Shadscale Plant Form: Rounded shrub. Height: To about 6-feet high. Bark: Silver gray.
	Stems: Erect; many branches, ascending and spreading. Leaves: 1/3 to 2 inches long, narrow; white-scaly with bead-like hairs; alternate; groove down the center; somewhat fleshy. Flowers: Pistillate inflorescence terminal, spike-like; individual flowers small and inconspicuous. Seeds: 1.5 to 2.5 mm, enclosed in two papery bracts that grow at right angles and form a somewhat spherical structure around the seed.
	Habitat: Dry, poorly to well-drained sandy, gravelly, alkaline, and saline soils on flats and bajadas. Elevation: below about 8,000 feet. Distribution: Western U.S. Comments:
	Unripe seeds on a female plant.
	Dry seeds (ripe) on a female plant.
	Flowers on male plant.

Female plant in fruit	Female plant in fruit
Female plant in fruit	Female plant in fruit
Female plant in fruit	Female plant in fruit
Female plant in fruit	Female plant in fruit
Female plant in fruit	Male plant with flowers
Male plant with flowers	Male plant with flowers
Male plant with flowers	Male plant with flowers
Male plant with flowers	Male plant with flowers
Leaves	Male plant with female plant in the background
Female plant with ripening fruits	Female plant with ripening fruits
Female plant with ripening fruits	Female plant with ripening fruits
Female	Female
Male	Male flowers
Male flowers	Male flowers
Male flowers	Male flowers
Male plant	Male plant
Male flowers	Male flowers
Male flowers	Male flowers
Male flowers	Male plant
Male flowers	Male flowers
Male flowers	Male flowers

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Note: All distances, elevations, and other facts are approximate. Names generally follow the USDA database.
© 2013 Jim Boone; Last updated 101028

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