ATRIPLEX HALIMUS

Family:- AMARANTHACEAE

Common Name:- Shrubby orache

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:-

a) up to 150 cm.

b) older branches with pale grey bark.

c) young shoots with a white powdery covering (farinose) to greyish-green.

d) angled.

Leaves:-

a) 1-4 x 0.4-3 cm.

b) alternate (rarely a few opposite).

c) persistent.

d) shortly stalked (petiolate).

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

with 2 obscure lobes or teeth, broadly wedge-shaped (cuneate) to gradually

narrowing (attenuate) at the base, obtuse-rounded to ending in a sharp point

(mucronate) at the apex.

f) almost leathery (coriaceous).

g) with a silvery-grey powdery covering (farinose).

Flowers:-

1) Inflorescence:

a) terminal.

b) paniculate, 10-40 cm, with the flowers in dense remote clusters.

2) Bracts:

a) small or absent.

3) Perianth segments:

a) in the male flowers 5, c. 0.8 x 0.6 mm, oblong-obovate, covered with fine soft

hairs (lanuginose).

4) Stamens:

a) 5.

b) filaments hairless (glabrous), c. 1 mm.

c) anthers yellow.

5) Bracteoles:

a) ± free.

b) stemless (sessile).

c) orbicular-ovate to deltoid-kidney-shaped (reniform), 2-4 mm, increasing in

length and thickness (accrescent) to 4-6 mm in fruit, entire or toothed

(dentate), smooth or rarely with small, wart-like projections or rough short hard

pointed protuberances (muricate-tuberculate) at the centre.

Fruit:-

1) Seed:

a) vertical, strongly compressed, suborbicular, 1.0-1.5 mm, diam

b) 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.

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