Atriplex serenana

Bractscale, stinking orach, Stinking Orach

Family: Chenopodiaceae · Type: annual · Native

Bractscale is a California native annual plant found in dry, open habitats across California's coastal and interior regions at elevations near sea level to 1,000 meters. Flowering during late summer and early fall, the plant produces inconspicuous greenish flowers in small spheric clusters at the tips of its branches. Growing 30 to 100 centimeters tall with a distinctive mat-like growth habit, the plant develops decumbent to ascending branches that are sparsely covered with fine scales. Its leaves are elliptic to lanceolate, measuring 5 to 50 millimeters long, with irregular tooth-like edges and a slightly green appearance. The plant produces small brown seeds approximately 1 to 1.3 millimeters in size, enclosed by rounded bracts that are fused at the base and have toothed edges.

California counties: Kern, Santa Barbara, Los Angeles, Fresno, Orange, San Bernardino, Merced, Inyo, San Diego, Riverside, San Joaquin, Ventura, Stanislaus, Lake, San Luis Obispo, San Francisco, Yolo, Imperial, Kings, Butte, Tulare, Santa Cruz, Monterey, Alameda, Sacramento, Madera, Mono, Solano

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