Atriplex coronata

Crownscale

Family: Chenopodiaceae · Type: annual · Native

Crownscale is a California native annual herb found in low-elevation desert and coastal regions across southern California. Flowering from April to August, this plant produces inconspicuous green flowers in small axillary clusters with distinctive gray-green herbage. Growing with decumbent to erect stiff branches 10 to 30 centimeters tall, the plant develops a compact, multi-stemmed form with gray-scaled stems that become straw-colored with age. Its leaves are elliptic to ovate, 8 to 20 millimeters long, with a tapered base and gray-scaled surface, becoming progressively smaller toward the stem tips. The plant produces small dark brown seeds approximately 1 to 1.5 millimeters in size, characteristic of its unique Atriplex genus.

California counties: Contra Costa, Kern, Kings, San Luis Obispo, Los Angeles, Tulare, Monterey, Merced, San Benito, Solano, Riverside, Madera, Alameda, Santa Clara, Colusa, Fresno, Santa Barbara

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