''Allenrolfea occidentalis'', the iodine bush, is a low-lying shrub of the

Southwestern United States The Southwestern United States, also known as the American Southwest or simply the Southwest, is a geographic and cultural region of the United States that generally includes Arizona, New Mexico, and adjacent portions of California, Colorado, N ...

California California is a state in the Western United States, located along the Pacific Coast. With nearly 39.2million residents across a total area of approximately , it is the most populous U.S. state and the 3rd largest by area. It is also the ...

Idaho Idaho ( ) is a state in the Pacific Northwest region of the Western United States. To the north, it shares a small portion of the Canada–United States border with the province of British Columbia. It borders the states of Montana and W ...

, and northern

Mexico Mexico ( Spanish: México), officially the United Mexican States, is a country in the southern portion of North America. It is bordered to the north by the United States; to the south and west by the Pacific Ocean; to the southeast by Guate ...

.Shultz, L.M.: 'eFloras 2008
''Allenrolfea occidentalis'' in Flora of North America
Missouri Botanical Garden, St. Louis, MO & Harvard University Herbaria, Cambridge, MA. It grows in sandy, often salty, distinctly alkaline soils, such as desert washes and saline dry lakebeds. It is a common halophyte member of the

alkali flat ecosystem An alkali sink is a salty basin land form. The term may also refer to a North American desert vegetation type ( biome) characteristic of that landform.Pam MacKay, Mojave Desert Wildflowers, 2nd Ed., p. 15-16 Rainwater drains to the basin and coll ...

Description

The knobby green stems are fleshy and appear jointed at the internodes between segments. Often the segments are so short they are nearly round. The leaves appear as flaky scales scattered across the surface of the stems. The genus was named for the English botanist

Robert Allen Rolfe Robert Allen Rolfe (1855, Wilford, Nottinghamshire – 1921, Richmond, Surrey) was an English botanist specialising in the study of orchids. For a time he worked in the gardens at Welbeck Abbey. He entered Kew in 1879 and became second assistan ...

.Shultz, L.M.: 'eFloras 2008
''Allenrolfea'' in Flora of North America
Missouri Botanical Garden, St. Louis, MO & Harvard University Herbaria, Cambridge, MA. The seeds of iodinebush have been used as food in North America in

prehistory Prehistory, also known as pre-literary history, is the period of human history between the use of the first stone tools by hominins 3.3 million years ago and the beginning of recorded history with the invention of writing systems. The use ...

.Rhode, David; Madsen, David B.; Jones, Kevin T. (2006
Antiquity of early Holocene small-seed consumption and processing at Danger Cave
''Antiquity'' 80(308):328-339

References

External links

Jepson Manual TreatmentUSDA Plants ProfilePhoto gallery
Amaranthaceae Halophytes Flora of the Southwestern United States Flora of Northwestern Mexico Flora of Idaho Flora of the Northwestern United States Flora of California Flora of the California desert regions Flora of the Sonoran Deserts Flora of the Great Basin Plants described in 1871 Taxa named by Sereno Watson Flora without expected TNC conservation status {{Amaranthaceae-stub

Description

References

Further reading

External links