Atriplex parryi

Parry's saltbush

Family: Chenopodiaceae · Type: shrub · Native

Parry's saltbush is a California native shrub found in southern Sierra Nevada, Mojave Desert, and northern Sonoran Desert regions in alkaline soils, dry lake flats, and open areas at elevations below 1,500 meters. Flowering from May to August, this plant produces small, inconspicuous flowers with white-scaly bracts. Growing as a rounded, erect shrub 20 to 50 centimeters tall with many spreading to erect branches, it develops stiff, spine-like twigs with age that are densely covered in white scales. Its leaves are small, 5 to 20 millimeters long, with elliptic to wide-ovate blades that are densely white-scaly and have truncate to heart-shaped bases. The shrub produces small round seeds approximately 1 to 1.5 millimeters in diameter, characteristic of its adaptation to arid desert environments.

Habitat: Alkaline soils, flats, dry lakes

Bloom period: May-Aug

Elevation: < 1500 m

Bioregions: s SNE, DMoj, n DSon

California counties: Inyo, San Diego, Kern, Los Angeles, Orange, San Bernardino, Mono

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