Atriplex coulteri

Coulter's saltbush

Family: Chenopodiaceae · Type: perennial · Native

Conservation status: CNPS 1B.2

Coulter's saltbush is a rare (CNPS 1B.2) California native perennial found in southern California coastal and Channel Islands regions in alkaline or clay soils, coastal bluff scrub, and open sites at elevations below 500 meters. Flowering from March to October, this plant produces inconspicuous greenish-gray flowers in small terminal spikes. Growing as a low, spreading subshrub 20 to 50 centimeters tall with multiple decumbent to erect branches, it forms dense, intricate clusters. Its leaves are distinctive, narrow and elliptic, covered in gray scales especially on the undersides, typically 7 to 20 millimeters long. The plant produces small brown seeds 1 to 1.5 millimeters long enclosed by sharply dentate bracts that fuse at the base.

Habitat: Alkaline or clay soils, open sites, scrub, coastal bluff scrub

Bloom period: Mar-Oct

Elevation: < 500 m

Bioregions: SCo, ChI

California counties: Orange, Los Angeles, Riverside, Santa Barbara, San Diego, Ventura, Alameda, San Bernardino, San Luis Obispo, Kern

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