Click on images to enlarge
habit (Photo: Sheldon Navie)
close-up of stem and lower leaf (Photo: Sheldon Navie)
close-up of leaf underside (Photo: Trevor James)
upper leaves and elongated male flower clusters (Photo: Sheldon Navie)
close-up of male flowers (Photo: Sheldon Navie)
close-up of female flowers and immature fruit (Photo: Greg Jordan)
close-up of mature fruit and seeds (Photo: Carole Ritchie at USDA PLANTS Database)
seedling (Photo: Trevor James)
Scientific Name
Atriplex prostrata Boucher ex DC.
Synonyms
Atriplex hastata L. (misapplied)Atriplex hastata L. var. salina Wallr. ex Gren.Atriplex patula L. var. hastata (L.) A.Gray (misapplied)Atriplex prostrata Boucher ex DC. var. prostrata
Family
Chenopodiaceae
Common Names
atriplex, creeping saltbush, fat-hen, halberd-leaf orache, hastate orache, hastate saltplant, mat saltbush, orache, spade leaf, spear leaved orache, spear-leaved orache, spear-scale, thin-leaf orach, thinleaf orach, triangle orache
Origin
The exact native range of this species is obscure, but it is thought to be native to northern Africa, Europe, western and northern Asia. Possibly also native to eastern Canada, though it is more likely to be introduced to this region.
Naturalised Distribution
Widely naturalised in southern Australia (i.e. in eastern New South Wales, the ACT, many parts of Victoria and South Australia, Tasmania and south-western Western Australia). Also naturalised on Lord Howe Island and in many other parts of the world.
Notes
This species is regarded as an environmental weed in Victoria and Western Australia. It is mainly a weed of wetter and somewhat saline situations, particularly along creek margins and in estuaries. Also a weed in coastal environs and around the margins of inland saline lakes in the southern parts of Western Australia. In fact, hastate orache (Atriplex prostrata) is listed as one of the major weeds of saline areas in south-western Western Australia. This species has also been recorded in conservation areas in Tasmania (i.e. Narawntapu National Park), Victoria (e.g. Yarra Bend Park and Phillip Island Nature Park), New South Wales (e.g. Montagu Island) and South Australia (e.g. Coorong National Park).
Hastate orache (Atriplex prostrata) is one of several weeds that are competing with the most significant remaining population of the endangered Spalding blown grass (Lachnagrostis limitanea). This population of this rare native grass is located on a swampy flat on the banks of a perennial watercourse at Yakkalo in the Northern Lofty Mountains region in South Australia. Hastate orache (Atriplex prostrata) is also a common weed of the critically endangered lagunaria swamp forest communities on Lord Howe Island.
Note: This species is easily confused with some other introduced and native saltbushes with creeping habits (e.g. Atriplex patula and Atriplex australasica).
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