FOUR-WING SALT BUSH (Atriplex canescens)
Found throughout Arizona below 6,500' elevation, this plant is adapted to very diverse soil and climatic conditions, but is most frequently found in sandy soils. We mainly see it in Lower Hot Springs Canyon and in the broad Soza Mesa floodplains. Atriplex species are very salt-tolerant, and they flower in summer and early fall.
Leaves are gray-green, grayer on the lower surface (see left -- click on the image to enlarge it). They are usually "broadest at the middle and less than 1 cm. wide" (Kearney & Peebles 1960, p256).
The flowers and fruit of this plant give it the name "Four-Wing", a metaphor the basis for which you can see clearly in the image at the right.
(click on the image to enlarge it).
In cross-section each fruit looks "cruciform" -- it has four lobes, each pair on opposite sides of a central axis. The "free tips of the fruiting bractlets [are] commonly not surpassing the wings [in length]" (Kearney & Peebles 1990, p. 256) These fruits are highly prized by browsers, and Native Americans collected leaves and seeds for food, using both the salt-flavored leaves and young shoots for greens and parching the seeds for meal..
Below, an unusually large (for our area) Four-wing Salt bush in Lower Hot Springs Canyon, March 2004. (This one is nearly 5 feet high.)
Below, a small (and fruiting) plant, photographed in Sierra Blanca Spring Wash in September 2004.
