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Western Wetland Flora

Field Office Guide to Plant Species

Western Seepweed
Suaeda occidentalis S. Wats.

JPG -- Species Photo JPG -- Distribution Map

Family: Goosefoot (Chenopodiaceae)
Flowering: July-September
Field Marks: The genus Suaeda is differentiated by 5 greenish sepals that are subtended by bracts shorter than the sepals and by flowers usually with both stamens and pistils.
Habitat: Alkaline soils.
Habit: Annual herb with fibrous roots.
Stems: Spreading to upright, branched or unbranched, up to 1 1/2 feet long, sometimes glaucous.
Leaves: Alternate, simple, linear, up to 3/4 inch long, about 1/24 inch wide, pointed at the tip, tapering to the base.
Flowers: Several in short clusters in the axils of the leaves, subtended by bracts shorter than the sepals.
Sepals: 5, green, united below, the lobes rounded at the tip.
Petals: 0.
Stamens: 5.
Pistils: Ovary superior; styles 2.
Fruits: Nearly spherical, enclosed by the sepals: seeds black, shiny.

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Next Species -- American Globeflower (Trollius laxus)

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Page Last Modified: Saturday, 02-Feb-2013 06:28:41 EST
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