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Fourwing
Saltbush
Common
Name(s):
Fourwing saltbush
Scientific
Name:
Atriplex
canescens (Pursh) Nutt.
Scientific
Name Synonyms:
None known
Symbol:
ATCA2
Description:
Life Span: Perennial
Origin:
Native
Season: Evergreen
Growth Characteristics:
An
erect, stout, and much-branched shrub, growing 1 to 7 feet tall,
and 1 to 15 feet in crown diameter. Flowers May to September and
reproduces from seed.
Flowers/Inflorescence:
Flowers
occur in panicles. Male and female flowers are usually borne on
separate plants. The male flowers grow in dense clusters arranged
as spike-like branches in a terminal panicle and are green in color.
Female flowers grow in short axillary spikelets, appearing as a
terminal panicle, yellow in color.
Fruits/Seeds:
Fruit is a utricle, enclosed in a pair of 2-winged bracts, giving
it the "fourwing" appearance.
Leaves: Alternate
or occurring in fascicles (like pine needles). Blades are oblong
to wide oval to lance-shaped, 3/8 inch wide and 2 inches long. Margins
are entire and may be rolled. The surfaces are thick gray and scurfy.
Stems: Twigs
are rigid, gray to yellowish or tan, pubescent when young becoming
glabrous (without hair). The bark is thin, tight, gray, and lightly
grooved.
Ecological
Adaptations:
Fourwing
saltbush is well adapted to a wide range of temperature and soil
conditions. It is highly tolerant of drought, salinity, and alkalinity.
Fourwing saltbush occurs on sand dunes, in gravelly washes, on mesas,
ridges, alluvial plains, and slopes, at elevations between 3,000
and 8,000 feet.
Soils: Common
on many different soil types, most common on deep, well-drained,
sandy (often alkaline) soils in the desert and foothill ranges of
the Great Basin. However, it also grows well on heavy clay and on
selenium-enriched soil.
Associated Species:
Bottlebrush
squirreltail, Rubber rabbitbrush,
big sagebrush, shadscale,
and greasewood.
Uses and
Management:
Fourwing
saltbush is a valuable browse that tolerates heavy use. It is used
extensively by many wildlife species and domestic livestock, and
provides fair to good forage for domestic sheep, goats, and cattle.
Leaves usually remain succulent during the hot, dry summer months
and can provide some forage even in years when annuals fail. Fourwing
saltbush generally provides good deer browse during all seasons
and is used by elk in winter. Pronghorns may feed on this shrub
to some extent during all seasons of the year. Fourwing saltbush
is a preferred browse of many rabbits and small mammals. Seeds are
readily eaten by upland game birds, small nongame birds, and rodents.
On rare occasions, fourwing saltbush has caused scours, bloat, and
anemia in domestic livestock.
Fourwing saltbush has been widely used for rehabilitating mine spoils,
roadsides, and oil well reserve pits high in soluble salts. It is
well suited for revegetating saline sites.
Indians ground the seeds to make flour for bread. The pollen of
fourwing saltbush commonly causes hay fever.
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