''Atriplex tatarica'' is a species of

plant Plants are predominantly photosynthetic eukaryotes of the kingdom Plantae. Historically, the plant kingdom encompassed all living things that were not animals, and included algae and fungi; however, all current definitions of Plantae exclud ...

belonging to the family

Amaranthaceae Amaranthaceae is a family of flowering plants commonly known as the amaranth family, in reference to its type genus ''Amaranthus''. It includes the former goosefoot family Chenopodiaceae and contains about 165 genera and 2,040 species, making it ...

. Its native range spans a large area of Middle and western Central Asia, Asia Minor, North Africa, and Eastern Europe.

Description

''Atriplex tatarica'' is an

annual plant An annual plant is a plant that completes its life cycle, from germination to the production of seeds, within one growing season, and then dies. The length of growing seasons and period in which they take place vary according to geographical ...

that has a white branched taproot. The height of A. tatarica varies and can be anywhere from to in height. The pattern of leaf arrangement is alternate at all but the 2-4 lowermost

nodes In general, a node is a localized swelling (a "knot") or a point of intersection (a Vertex (graph theory), vertex). Node may refer to: In mathematics *Vertex (graph theory), a vertex in a mathematical graph *Vertex (geometry), a point where two ...

, which exhibit opposite leaf arrangement. Its leaves are petiolate, long, wide and are variously shaped. A. tatarica exhibits both female and male flora within a plant. Flowers are observed in clusters or solitary. As with other species in the genus

Atriplex ''Atriplex'' () is a plant genus of about 250 species, known by the common names of saltbush and orache (; also spelled orach). It belongs to the subfamily Chenopodioideae of the family Amaranthaceae ''s.l.''. The genus is quite variable and w ...

, A. tatarica is described to express heterocarpy as it produces two fruit types that vary in both size and color. Variation is also seen in chromosome number based on region. In Central Europe only

diploid Ploidy () is the number of complete sets of chromosomes in a cell, and hence the number of possible alleles for autosomal and pseudoautosomal genes. Sets of chromosomes refer to the number of maternal and paternal chromosome copies, respectively ...

(2n = 18) plants have been observed, whereas in Russia both diploid (2n = 18) and tetraploid (2n = 36) plants have been found.

Geographical distribution

''A. tatarica'' has a widespread native distribution covering Middle Asia, Western Mongolia and Northwestern China as far north as

Mongolian Altai The Altai Mountains (), also spelled Altay Mountains, are a mountain range in Central Asia, Central and East Asia, where Russia, China, Mongolia and Kazakhstan converge, and where the rivers Irtysh and Ob River, Ob have their headwaters. The m ...

. It spans Asia Minor as well as North Africa and South-East Europe. It has even spread to parts of the Eastern United States with ''A. tatarica'' being observed in Alabama, Connecticut, Florida, Massachusetts, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, and New Hampshire.

Habitat

Inside its native distribution area of Middle and the western parts of Central Asia and Central Europe, ''A. tatarica'' is typically found in large populations in coastal solonchaks (areas with soil having high concentrations of

soluble salts In chemistry, solubility is the ability of a chemical substance, substance, the solute, to form a solution (chemistry), solution with another substance, the solvent. Insolubility is the opposite property, the inability of the solute to form su ...

). It is reported as having strong tolerance to both nutrient and salinity gradients, and is also typically found in ruderal habitats. It is an early successional plant inhabiting urban areas, road margins, railways, dumps, and dung hills. The plant's propagation along roadways can be attributed to its bracteole covered seeds which readily adhere to rubber tires.

References

{{Taxonbar, from=Q1642174 tatarica