Participant Info

Species

Atriplex patula

Family

Amaranthaceae

CommonName

spear saltbrush

Presence

Yes

Status

exotic

EarliestDate

1938

LatestDate

1996

Ecosystem

shrubland, foothill, ruderal, urban

Geobotanical

SSanjuans, UBasin

Counties

Alamosa, Rio Grande, Saguache

Passes

WildlifePreserves

Russell Lakes

Other Localities

PhotoRecords

Comments

NEED IN SITU PHOTOS. There are but a few records of Atriplex patula from the Watershed: Monte Vista (Rio Grande Co, 1938), east of Villa Grove (Saguache Co, 1984), La Jara Creek (Alamosa Co, 1988, La Baca Lane (Alamosa Co, 1996), Russell Lakes WPA (Saguache Co, 1996). This exotic is scattered throughout the USA above the Mason-Dixon line. It has not yet been recorded from the Rio Grande drainage south of the Colorado Watershed. As other species of Atriplex, A. patula produces dimorphic seeds, with the larger one three times the mass of the smaller one. Studies have shown that the larger seed germinates better in wetter conditions, the smaller seed in drier conditions—increasing the chances of reproduction, for instance, under the varying ecology of tilled fields or floodplains (Nurse, et al., 2008).

Annotation