KATTEGAT ORACHE

Atriplex × gustafssoniana

(Atriplex prostrata × longipes)

Goosefoot Family [Amaranthaceae]

month8jul month8july month8aug month8sep month8sept

status
statusZnative
 
flower
flower8green
 
morph
morph8actino
 
petals
petalsZ5
tepals
stem
stem8round
 
stem
stem8angular
 
sex
sexZdioeciousORsexZmonoecious
 

No Tubercules on this one (not 'horns')

10th Oct, 2015, Marshside, Southport, Sefton Coast. Photo: © RWD
The hybrid between Spear-Leaved Orache and Long-Stalked Orache with characteristics mostly intermediate between the two apart from the fruits which Clive Stace shows as being long and negatively curving into a point or strongly acuminate (however the photos of the fruit here do not bear that out). But then, this is only one specimen in the hybrid spectrum between the two parents.


10th Oct, 2015, Marshside, Southport, Sefton Coast. Photo: © RWD
A well-branched specimen (this being just one of its main branches).


10th Oct, 2015, Marshside, Southport, Sefton Coast. Photo: © RWD
Held aloft to better examine it. Fruits in small groups, some groups separated by quite a margin.


10th Oct, 2015, Marshside, Southport, Sefton Coast. Photo: © RWD
Fruits on this specimen lack 'horns' (botanically tubercules). Your Author does not know if this applies to all specimens.


10th Oct, 2015, Marshside, Southport, Sefton Coast. Photo: © RWD
Fruits well delineated and with only few if any teeth on the edges of the bracteoles.


10th Oct, 2015, Marshside, Southport, Sefton Coast. Photo: © RWD
A lower chlorotic leaf.


10th Oct, 2015, Marshside, Southport, Sefton Coast. Photo: © RWD
Upper leaves narrow lanceolate to nearly linear.


10th Oct, 2015, Marshside, Southport, Sefton Coast. Photo: © RWD
Stace seems to imply that there are two distint populations of fruits (on differing hybrids): those with bracteoles 3.5 - 5mm long which are sometimes fused at the edges and have a stalk up to 1mm long which are called var. Kattegensis; and the other nothomorphs where the bracteoles are up to 9mm long and with stalks to 5mm long (which have no apparent variety name). With some long stalks this specimen looks like it belongs to the latter population (?).


10th Oct, 2015, Marshside, Southport, Sefton Coast. Photo: © RWD
Some bracteoles have quite long stalks; certainly longer than 1mm.


10th Oct, 2015, Marshside, Southport, Sefton Coast. Photo: © RWD
More bracteole pairs. The single seed lies in-between them.


Kattegat Orache is the hybrid between : Long-Stalked Orache (Atriplex longipes) and Spear-Leaved Orache (Atriplex prostrata)

Some similarities to : the two parents, in permutions of a continuos spectrum of the two characteristics.

Kattegat Orache is native and fertile and able to propate. It inhabits coastal estuaries and sometimes ventures inland on salty areas. It is found scattered around the coasts of Britain but the var. kattegatensis is only found in Northern Scotland (which ties in with your Authors conclusion above where he thinks that this is the nothomorph with the larger fruit and with up to 5 times longer bracteole stalks). It is often found without one or both parents. It is commoner than is Long-Stalked Orache and as common as is Babington's Orache (Atriplex glabriuscula).


  Atriplex × gustafssoniana  ⇐ Global Aspect ⇒ Amaranthaceae  

Distribution
family8Goosefoot family8Amaranthaceae
 BSBI maps
genus8Atriplex
Atriplex
(Oraches)

KATTEGAT ORACHE

Atriplex × gustafssoniana

(Atriplex prostrata × longipes)

Goosefoot Family [Amaranthaceae]