Scientific name: Atriplex laciniata L.
Common name: Frosted Orache

Description
Habit: A decumbent annual, with very mealy stems and leaves.
Stems: Branched and spreading, silvery white colour, very mealy, to 30 cm long.
Leaves: Mealy, stalkless or with very small stalks, tapered at the base, narrowly oval, lobed or coarsely toothed.
Flowers: In very small compact spikes, shorter than the leaves, unisexual; male with 5 sepals and stamens; female without sepals but with 2 triangular or rhombic bracteoles, united about halfway to the base, hardened at the base, sometimes with 2 distinct lobes, smooth, enlarging and enclosing the ovary and fruit; styles 2.
Fruits: A small nut.

Habitat: Sandy seashores.
Distribution: Very local.

Native status: Native
Of conservation interest: No

Family Chenopodiaceae
Genus Atriplex
Species Atriplex laciniata

Scientific synonyms and common names

Frosted Orache [English]
Orache, Frosted [English]

Stace, C. (1997) New Flora of the British Isles. Cambridge University Press, The Bath Press, UK.

Webb, D. A. and M. J. P. Scannell (1983) Flora of Connemara and the Burren. Royal Dublin Society and Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, UK.

Webb, D. A., J. Parnell and D. Doogue (1996) An Irish Flora. Dundalgan Press, Dundalk.

You can continue searching for Atriplex laciniata on one of these Web sites:

Fauna Europaea (animals) | IOPI (plants) | NCBI (genetic)

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