Atriplex elegans

Wheelscale

Family: Chenopodiaceae · Type: annual · Native

Wheelscale is a California native annual herb found in desert and interior regions in open, dry habitats. Flowering from summer to fall, this plant produces small, inconspicuous flowers nestled among densely white-scaled leaves. Growing 10 to 50 centimeters tall with decumbent to ascending branched stems that become smooth with age, it develops a delicate, spreading form. Its leaves are elliptic to oblanceolate, 3 to 25 millimeters long, with white scales covering the undersides and edges ranging from entire to irregularly toothed. The plant's distinctive fruit bracts are round and compressed, fused near the tip and measuring 2 to 4 millimeters across.

California counties: San Bernardino, Riverside, Imperial, San Diego

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