Atriplex prostrata

Fat-hen

Family: Chenopodiaceae · Type: annual · Not Native

Fat-hen is a naturalized annual found in the North Coast, northern Coast Ranges, Central California valleys, western California, and Sierra Nevada foothills in wet places and marshes at elevations below 1,300 meters. Flowering from April to October, this plant produces green flowers with distinctive triangular-hastate leaves. Growing with branched stems 10 to 120 centimeters tall, it appears ascending to nearly erect with green-striped stems that become smooth with age. Its leaves are generally petioled, 10 to 90 millimeters long, with triangular shapes and edges that are entire to wavy-toothed. The plant produces two kinds of seeds, ranging from 1 to 2.5 millimeters long in black or brown colors.

Habitat: Wet places, marshes

Bloom period: Apr-Oct

Elevation: < 1300 m

Bioregions: NCo, NCoRO, CaRH, n SNF, Teh, GV, CW, SW, MP (exc Wrn), SNE (exc W&ampI)

California counties: Ventura, San Diego, Santa Barbara, Yolo, Santa Clara, Inyo, Contra Costa, Riverside, Orange, Mono, Los Angeles, Del Norte, Kern, Monterey, Colusa, Mendocino, Sonoma, Marin, Sacramento, Humboldt, San Luis Obispo, Merced, Solano, Alameda, Siskiyou, San Benito, Stanislaus, Glenn, San Mateo, Lassen, Santa Cruz, Butte, San Francisco, Fresno, San Joaquin, Modoc, Lake, Napa, San Bernardino

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