Atriplex canescens
Credits
Article from Bean's Trees and Shrubs Hardy in the British Isles
Recommended citation
'Atriplex canescens' from the website Trees and Shrubs Online (treesandshrubsonline.
Common Names
- Grey Sage Brush
Infraspecifics
Other taxa in genus
An evergreen, unisexual shrub of sprawling habit 5 or 6 ft high, twice as much in diameter, of a light grey colour; leaves and young branches covered with a fine scurfy down. Leaves alternate, narrowly oblong, 3⁄4 to 2 in. long, 1⁄8 to 1⁄3 in. wide, fleshy, bluntish at the apex, tapered at the base. Flowers yellowish, very small; produced during July in cylindrical, spiked clusters, both terminal and axillary, 1⁄3 to 1 in. long; the whole forming a slender, tapered, leafy panicle 6 to 12 in. long. Fruit bracts 1⁄2 in. long, deeply toothed.
Native of western N. America from British Columbia to Nebraska, and found in dry saline localities. It has long been cultivated at Kew, and is perfectly hardy. In no way showy in flower, it attracts notice and pleases many by its almost white appearance.
subsp. canescens
Synonyms
Atriplex nuttallii S.Watson
Editorial Note
Treated by Bean as Atriplex nuttallii, ‘quite a different plant [from A. canescens], with which [it] has been confused in gardens.’
The plant is low, and is shrubby only at the base, sending up erect, more or less annual stems, 1 to 3 ft high. Leaves 1⁄2 to 2 in. long, narrowly oblanceolate, often rounded at the apex, and grey. The fruit bracts are less than half as large as those of the type subspecies, being 1⁄4 in. or less long. Native of western N. America.