''Atriplex hymenelytra'', the desert holly, is silvery-whitish-gray

shrub A shrub or bush is a small to medium-sized perennial woody plant. Unlike herbaceous plants, shrubs have persistent woody stems above the ground. Shrubs can be either deciduous or evergreen. They are distinguished from trees by their multiple ...

in 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, maki ...

, native to

desert A desert is a landscape where little precipitation occurs and, consequently, living conditions create unique biomes and ecosystems. The lack of vegetation exposes the unprotected surface of the ground to denudation. About one-third of the la ...

s of the southwestern United States.Wildflowers of the Sonoran Desert, Richard Spellenberg, 2nf ed, 2012, Mojave Desert Wildflowers, Pam Mackay, 2nd ed. It is the most drought tolerant

saltbush Saltbush is a vernacular plant name that most often refers to ''Atriplex'', a genus of about 250 plants distributed worldwide from subtropical to subarctic regions. ''Atriplex'' species are native to Australia, North and South America, and Eurasia. ...

in North America. It can tolerate the hottest and driest sites in

Death Valley Death Valley is a desert valley in Eastern California, in the northern Mojave Desert, bordering the Great Basin Desert. It is thought to be the Highest temperature recorded on Earth, hottest place on Earth during summer. Death Valley's Badwat ...

, and remains active most of the year. The common name refers to the leaves that are shaped similar to

holly ''Ilex'' () or holly is a genus of over 570 species of flowering plants in the family Aquifoliaceae, and the only living genus in that family. ''Ilex'' has the most species of any woody dioecious angiosperm genus. The species are evergreen o ...

, but the plants are not related. The toothed leaves and the small reddish fruits borne on the plant give it a passing resemblance to the unrelated

European holly ''Ilex aquifolium'', the holly, common holly, English holly, European holly, or occasionally Christmas holly, is a species of flowering plant in the family (botany), family Aquifoliaceae, native plant, native to western and southern Europe, nort ...

Range and habitat

Desert holly grows in

alkaline In chemistry, an alkali (; from the Arabic word , ) is a basic salt of an alkali metal or an alkaline earth metal. An alkali can also be defined as a base that dissolves in water. A solution of a soluble base has a pH greater than 7.0. The ...

locations such as

desert dry wash Desert dry wash is a North American desert vegetation type (or biome) occurring in the flat bottoms of canyons and drainages that lack water at or near the surface most of the year, and are subject to periodic severe flooding events.Pam MacKay, Mo ...

and

creosote bush scrub Creosote bush scrub is a North American desert vegetation type (or biome) of sparsely but evenly spaced desert plants dominated by creosote bush (''Larrea tridentata'') and its associates. Its visual characterization is of widely spaced shrubs th ...

in the

Mojave Desert The Mojave Desert (; ; ) is a desert in the rain shadow of the southern Sierra Nevada mountains and Transverse Ranges in the Southwestern United States. Named for the Indigenous peoples of the Americas, indigenous Mohave people, it is located pr ...

and

Sonoran Desert The Sonoran Desert () is a hot desert and ecoregion in North America that covers the northwestern Mexican states of Sonora, Baja California, and Baja California Sur, as well as part of the Southwestern United States (in Arizona and California). It ...

down to Baja California.http://ucjeps.berkeley.edu/cgi-bin/get_JM_treatment.pl?3084,3089,3112 Jepson In the Sonoran Desert it grows in northwestern Mexico, western

Arizona Arizona is a U.S. state, state in the Southwestern United States, Southwestern region of the United States, sharing the Four Corners region of the western United States with Colorado, New Mexico, and Utah. It also borders Nevada to the nort ...

, and southeastern California to southwestern

Utah Utah is a landlocked state in the Mountain states, Mountain West subregion of the Western United States. It is one of the Four Corners states, sharing a border with Arizona, Colorado, and New Mexico. It also borders Wyoming to the northea ...

, and can be found at elevations ranging from . With dry soil, it can survive temperatures as low as ; however, it dies if the ground freezes.Atriplex hymenelytra, Las Pilitas Nursery
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Description

Growth pattern

Atriplex hymenelytra is generally a compact, rounded bush, tall, covered in distinctive reflective silver-gray, twisted, oblong, many-pointed leaves. It drops its leaves

drought deciduous Drought deciduous, or drought semi-deciduous plants refers to plants that shed their leaves during periods of drought or in the dry season. This phenomenon is a natural process of plants and is caused due to the limitation of water around the env ...

in extreme drought conditions. It tolerates alkaline soil, salt and sand. The leaves accumulate salts which helps extract water from the soil when other plants cannot. Salt is shed by dropping the leaves. It can live in up to 30 ppm Boron in solution, compared to most plants which can tolerate only about 1-5 ppm. As with other desert climate members of 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 ...

'', it uses water conserving

C4 photosynthesis carbon fixation or the Hatch–Slack pathway is one of three known photosynthetic processes of carbon fixation in plants. It owes the names to the 1960s discovery by Marshall Davidson Hatch and Charles Roger Slack. fixation is an addition ...

, and it removes salts by having bladders in the leaves that keep the salt from the plant cells.

Roots, stems, and leaves

Oval to round, , silvery-gray leaves have a whitish reflective coating of tiny gray to white scales, and are shaped like twisted or wavy holly leaves, with toothed margins. The silvery color is from salts that collect on surface hairs. This helps reflect the light and thereby reduce the amount of water lost.

Inflorescence and fruit

It blooms from January to April in the Sonoran Desert. Plants are either male or female in their natural dry, desert habitat. When artificially transplanted to cooler and wetter climates, male and female flowers may occur on the same plant. Female flowers are green. Green or red fruits occur in dense clusters enclosed in disc-shaped leaf-like

bracts In botany, a bract is a modified or specialized leaf, associated with a reproductive structure such as a flower, inflorescence axis or cone scale. Bracts are usually different from foliage leaves in size, color, shape or texture. They also loo ...

, with the 2 round

bract In botany, a bract is a modified or specialized leaf, associated with a reproductive structure such as a flower, inflorescence axis or cone scale. Bracts are usually different from foliage leaves in size, color, shape or texture. They also lo ...

eoles pressed together, after flowering.

Ecology

Human uses

Plants were once used as Christmas decorations by drying and dying them. The plants are not a protected species in most habitats.

References

External links

Jepson Manual Treatment - ''Atriplex hymenelytra''USDA Plants Profile: ''Atriplex hymenelytra''''Atriplex hymenelytra'' - Photo gallery
- ''U.C.CalPhotos'' {{Taxonbar, from=Q4817592 hymenelytra North American desert flora Flora of the California desert regions Flora of the Sonoran Deserts Flora of Arizona Flora of Baja California Flora of Baja California Sur Flora of California Flora of Nevada Flora of Utah Flora of Sonora Death Valley National Park Natural history of the Colorado Desert Natural history of the Mojave Desert Flora without expected TNC conservation status