Atriplex glauca

Waxy saltbush

Family: Chenopodiaceae · Type: shrub · Not Native

Waxy saltbush is a naturalized shrub found in southern coastal California and western Transverse Ranges in beaches, coastal bluffs, and disturbed places at elevations below 1,000 meters. Flowering from March to July, this plant produces small inconspicuous flowers with silvery gray-green foliage. Growing as a low subshrub less than 5 meters tall with prostrate stems and erect to ascending branches, it features a distinctive scaly appearance. Its leaves are lance-oblong to ovate-round, 5 to 20 millimeters long, with entire or slightly toothed edges in a silvery gray-green color. The fruit bracts are ovate-deltate, 4 to 5 millimeters long, with a base that is often two-lobed and smooth to slightly textured.

Habitat: Beaches, coastal bluffs, disturbed places, annual grassland

Bloom period: Mar-Jul

Elevation: < 1000 m

Bioregions: SCo, WTR

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