ATRIPLEX HORTENSIS

Family and Genus:- AMARANTHACEAE

Common Name:- Orache

Homotypic 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:-

1) Up to 150 cm.

Leaves:-

1) More than 10 cm, long, cordate or hastate-triangular, subdentate to almost

entire, often reddish-purple, seemingly slightly farinose, glabrous.

Flowers:-

1) Inflorescence, terminal or axillary, spicate

a) female flowers dimorphic.

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

conspicuously veined.

Fruit:-

1) Seeds, 1.5-13 mm, diam. horizontal and vertical, suborbicular.

Key features:-

1) Female flowers, dimorphic.

2) Bracteoles, orbicular-cordate.

3) Seeds, horizontal and vertical.

Click here for a glossary of terms used.

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