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Mat
Saltbush
Common
Name(s):
Mat Saltbush
Scientific
Name:
Atriplex
corrugata S. Wats.
Scientific
Name Synonyms:
None known
Symbol:
ATCO4
Description:
Life Span: Perennial
Origin:
Native
Season: Evergreen
Growth Characteristics:
A
short, mat-forming plant of ashen or soil color; woody at base.
It can form mats 5 to 20 times wider than they are high. Prostrate
branches often produce adventitious roots where they contact the
soil. Mat saltbush flowers from April to early June.
Flowers/Inflorescence:
The
flowering stems, unlike the vegetative stems, are strictly erect
and slender. The flowers are solitary or few, found in the axis
of the leaf. The male and female flowers occur separately, but both
occur on the plant. The male flowers are yellow to light brown.
The female flowers are found on the elongated flowering stems that
far exceed the leaves.
Fruits/Seeds:
Fruit is a utricle.
Leaves: Thin,
lance-shaped blades, with white hairs. Leaf arrangement mostly opposite,
but alternate at the top of the stems.
Stems: Decumbent.
The white bark is thick and spongy, shreddy on older trunks.
Ecological
Adaptations:
Occurs
on mancos shale hillslopes, ridges, footslopes, knolls, and toeslopes
of undulating plateaus, at elevations 4,000 to 7,000 feet. Where
it occurs, it is usually the dominant plant species.
Soils: Moderately
deep and deep alkaline or saline soils.
Associated Species:
Alkali
sacaton, Indian ricegrass,
bottlebrush squirreltail,
gardner saltbush, shadscale,
and desert trumpet.
Uses and
Management:
Mat
saltbush is valuable forage for livestock and wildlife. It is grazed
by sheep in the summer and fall after other forage has been used
or has dried up. Poisoning may result when little else is eaten.
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