Atriplex canescens

Four-wing saltbush

Family: Chenopodiaceae · Type: shrub · Native

Four-wing saltbush is a native shrub found in desert and interior valleys of California, typically growing in arid, open landscapes at elevations of 500 to 1,500 meters. Flowering from spring to summer, this plant produces small, inconspicuous greenish-white flowers arranged in terminal clusters. Growing with multiple spreading to ascending branches 1 to 2.5 meters tall, the shrub forms a dense, rounded shape with distinctive white-scaled foliage. Its linear to oblanceolate leaves are densely covered in white scales, giving the plant a silvery-gray appearance. The fruit is characterized by distinctive four-winged bracts 4 to 25 millimeters long, with wings 3 to 6 millimeters wide that are entire or wavy.

California counties: Inyo, San Bernardino, Riverside, Imperial, Kern, Orange, San Luis Obispo, San Diego, Los Angeles, Ventura, Mono, San Benito, Merced, Butte, Santa Barbara, Lassen, Fresno, Tulare

Data from The California Species Project — 14,000+ California species with verified data from CNPS, CDFW, USFWS, Jepson eFlora, Cal-IPC, and more.