Atriplex serenana Nelson var. serenana                                                                 Chenopodiaceae   (GoosefootFamily)                                                                Native   Bracted Saltbush

                                   September Photo

Plant Characteristics:  Erect or decumbent annual, usually branched, often forming tangled mats 5-20 dm. across with ascending twigs, sparsely scurfy, lvs. many, alternate, lanceolate to oblong or oval, subsessile, 2-4 cm. long, sharply dentate to entire; plants monoecious, the staminate glomerules in terminal spikes or panicles, the pistillate  clusters small, axillary; fruiting bracts sessile or subsessile, somewhat compressed, united half way, cuneate-orbicular, 2-5 mm. long, smooth or tubercled, toothed above the middle; seed brown, 1-1.3 mm. long.

Habitat:  Alkaline valleys below 200 m.; V. grassland, Coastal Sage Scrub, etc.; Sacramento V. to L. Calif.; w. Nev.  May-Oct. 

Name:  Atriplex, the ancient Latin name.  (Dale 95).   Serenus in Latin means dry but this may not be the root from which the name was derived.  It could be given, however, due to the plants growing in low dry alkaline habitats.  (John Johnson).  Another possibility is N.L. serenanus, a name to honor Sereno Watson, American botanist and author of two volumes on the botany of California (1876-1880).  (Jaeger 236,317).

General:  Rare in the study area, having been found only once and this along the lower path in Santa Ana Heights about one-quarter mile easterly of the Delhi Ditch. (my comments).       According to Fred Roberts at the UCI Museum of Systematic Biology, this is the first reported finding of this plant in Upper Newport Bay since 1932.     A. serenana has been found to accumulate free nitrates in quantities capable of causing death or distress in cattle.  (Fuller 385).

Text Ref:  Abrams Vol. II 82; Hickman, Ed. 505; Munz, Flora So. Calif. 358; Roberts 19.

Photo Ref:  July-Aug 90 # 13,14; Aug-Sept 92 # 4.

Identity: by R. De Ruff, confirmed by John Johnson.  

First Found: July 1990.

Computer Ref:  Plant Data 407.

Have plant specimen.

Last edit 6/6/04.

                                             July Photo