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Oblong-Leaf Saltbush
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Oblong-Leaf Saltbush
P Native Photo: Nidhan SIngh
Common name: Oblong-Leaf Saltbush
Botanical name: Atriplex pseudotatarica    Family: Amaranthaceae (Amaranth family)
Synonyms: Atriplex crassifolia auct. non C.A.Mey. , Atriplex leucoclada auct. non Boiss.

Oblong-Leaf Saltbush is a subshrub up to 1.5 m tall, branched in upper half; leaves alternate, shortly stalked; leaf-stalks up to 1 cm long; blades greyish-silvery on both sides, 1.0-4.0 x 0.5-1.0 cm (much smaller towards inflorescence), oblong or narrowly oblong, entire or shallowly sinuate. Inflorescences are branched, up to 15 cm long, with pseudopposite bracts or with a few small leaves forming pseudowhorls, leafless in other parts; glomerules condensed or slightly interrupted, of both male and female flowers, the latter are also located at the axils of uppermost leaves below the main inflorescence. Male flowers are stipitate at base, with 5 free tepals, anthers 0.25 mm long; bract-like cover of female flowers rhombic, entire or scarcely toothed. Bract-like cover of female flowers located in leaf axils indurated in lower half and inflated at fruiting, 4.5-5.5 mm long, rhombic, and bract-like cover of female flowers located in the main inflorescence slightly indurated and not inflated at fruiting, 2-4 mm long, trilobate and rhombic. Oblong-Leaf Saltbush is found in saline soils, sands, wasteland, roadsides, at altitudes up to 2200 m in North India, Pakistan and SE Afghanistan. Flowering: July-November.

Identification credit: Nidhan SIngh Photographed in Panipat distt., Haryana.

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