Atriplex fruticulosa

Ballscale, little oak orach, Little Oak Orach

Family: Chenopodiaceae · Type: perennial · Native

Ballscale is a California native perennial found in northern coastal ranges, northern San Joaquin Valley, San Francisco Bay Area, southern coastal ranges, and western Mojave Desert regions in clay or alkaline scrub habitats at elevations below 1,000 meters. Flowering from April to November, this plant produces gray-scaled flowers with subtle white to green coloration. Growing with a decumbent to erect form reaching 30 to 50 centimeters tall, it develops many branched stems that become smooth with age. Its narrow leaves are 5 to 12 millimeters long, densely covered in gray scales and lance-shaped to elliptical. The plant produces distinctive fan-shaped or spherical fruit bracts that are 3 to 5 millimeters wide with irregular teeth along their edges.

Habitat: Clay or alkaline soils, open sites, scrub

Bloom period: Apr-Nov

Elevation: < 1000 m

Bioregions: NCoRI, Teh, GV, SnFrB, SCoRI, w DMoj.

California counties: Fresno, Santa Barbara, Monterey, Alameda, Kern, Stanislaus, Merced, San Joaquin, Tulare, Contra Costa, Colusa, Glenn, San Luis Obispo, Solano, San Benito, Madera, San Bernardino, Lake, Butte

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