ATRIPLEX HORTENSIS

Family:- AMARANTHACEAE

Common Name:- Orache

Synonyms:- Chenopodium hortense.

Meaning:- Atriplex (L) A name used by the Roman naturalist and philosopher

Pliny, from the ancient Greek meaning black and intertwined.

Hortensis (L) Cultivated, of the garden.

General description:- Erect annual.

Stems:-

a) Up to 150 cm.

Leaves:-

a) more than 10 cm, long.

b) heart-shaped- or with two ± triangular lobes pointed outwards (hastate-

triangular), subdentate to almost entire.

c) often reddish-purple.

d) seemingly slightly covered with powder (farinose).

e) becoming ± hairless (glabrous).

Flowers:-

1) Inflorescence:

a) terminal or axillary.

b) spike-like (spicate).

c) female flowers with two different shapes or forms (dimorphic).

2) Bracteoles:

a) orbicular-cordate to elliptic, 5-15 mm, acute, membranous, entire,

conspicuously veined.

Fruit:-

1) Seeds:

a) 1.5-13 mm, diam.

b) horizontal and vertical.

c) suborbicular.

Key features:-

1) Female flowers dimorphic.

2) Bracteoles orbicular-cordate.

3) Seeds horizontal and vertical.

Habitat:- Arable land and ruderal habitats. 0-400 m.

Distribution:- Scattered throughout Greece. Native to C Asia, cultivated and

naturalised in C & S Europe. Rare on Crete currently known from only one location.

Flowering time:- June-Oct

Photos by:- An Other