ATRIPLEX HALIMUS

Family and Genus:- See- AMARANTHACEAE

Common Name:- Shrubby orache

Homotypic Synonyms:- Chenopodium halimus, Obione halimus, Schizotheca

halimus.

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

Pliny, from the ancient Greek meaning black and intertwined.

Halimus (Gr) With silvery-grey foliage, orache-like.

General description:- Erect, stout, shrubby perennial.

Stems:-

1) Up to 150 cm, older branches with pale grey bark, young shoots farinose to

greyish-green, angled.

Leaves:-

1) 1-4 x 0.4-3 cm, alternate (rarely a few opposite), persistent, shortly-petiolate

ovate-rhombic, elliptical-lanceolate to deltoid-subhastate, usually entire, rarely

with 2 obscure lobes or teeth, broadly cuneate to attenuate at the base, obtuse-

rounded to mucronate at the apex, coriaceous, farinose

Flowers:-

1) Inflorescence, terminal, paniculate, 10-40 cm, with the flowers in dense remote

clusters.

2) Bracts, small or absent.

3) Perianth segments, in the male flowers 5, c. 0.8 x 0.6 mm, oblong-obovate,

lanuginose

4) Stamens, 5.

a) filaments, glabrous c. 1 mm.

b) anthers yellow.

5) Bracteoles, ± free, sessile, orbicular-ovate to reniform, 2-4 mm, accrescent to 4-

6mm in fruit, entire or dentate, smooth or rarely muricate-tuberculate at the

centre.

Fruit:-

1) Seed, vertical, strongly compressed, suborbicular, 1.0-1.5 mm, diam.

a) testa dark brown, pitted.

Key features:-

1) Shrubby perennial.

2) Bracteoles, reniform to orbicular, orbicular-ovate or rhombic-orbicular, not lobed.

3) Plant erect, usually more than 50 cm.

4) Leaves, entire, rarely dentate.

Click here for a glossary of terms used.

Habitat:- Rocky, sandy and clayey coastal habitats, sublittoral slope with dry open

shrubby vegetation occasionally to 200 m. along roads and ruderal habitats.

Distribution:- Widespread on Mediterranean coasts, extending to tropical Africa.

Scattered on Crete mainly around coastal regions.

Flowering time:- June-Nov

Photos by:- Giorgos Pantakis