Suaeda calceoliformis
 
Western Sea-Blite

Lower Leaf Side

Last Mountain Lake National Wildlife Area
23-Aug-2019

Note the leaves are circular or broadly elliptical in cross section.

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Suaeda: Answers to key questions in Budd's Flora and Flora of Alberta leading to this genus.   
bulletherbs, or low spineless shrubs; NOT [shrub with spiny branches, 1-2 m high]
bulletplants not prickly; NOT [plant prickly from the spine-tipped thread-like leaves and from bracts]
bulletplants lacking white or hyaline scales; NOT [plants heavily encrusted with white or hyaline scales]
bulletplants essentially glabrous, sometimes puberulent, greenish grey to purple, becoming almost black at maturity; NOT [plants green, covered (more or less) with a fine stellate pubescence]
bulletstems not fleshy
bulletstems not jointed
bulletstems not tomentose to densely villous
bulletleaves mostly alternate; NOT [leaves opposite]
bulletleaves not reduced to scales
bulletleaves circular in cross section
bulletleaves fleshy
bulletNOT [flowers axillary and sunk into the fleshy stem]
bulletflowers not subtended by scarious bracts
bulletbracts with a pale, but not hyaline, margin; NOT [bracts with a conspicuous hyaline margin]
bulletbracteoles lacking, or if present, merely subtending and not enclosing flower and fruit; NOT [pistillate flowers enclosed within a pair of bracteoles, occasionally 3]
bulletcalyx with 3-5 sepals; NOT [calyx with only one sepal]
bulletsepals greenish, herbaceous or fleshy; NOT [sepals scarious, dry and membranous]
bulletmature calyx without wings or spines; NOT [mature calyx with wings, or minute spines]
bulletflowers perfect
bulletat least some flowers with more than one stamen

 

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Amaranthaceae: Answers to key questions in Budd's Flora leading to this family.  Not all the answers apply to all the genera in Amaranthaceae, but they all do apply to Suaeda
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herbs; NOT [shrubs or trees]

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land plants; NOT [water plants]

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plants not parasitic on trees, rooted in soil

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plants with more than one pair of leaves

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leaves alternate, lower ones sometimes opposite; NOT [leaves opposite]

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leaves without stipules; NOT [leaves with stipules free or sheathing the stem]

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leaves not compound and not very deeply divided; NOT [leaves compound or simple, but very deeply divided]

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leaves not orbicular or reniform; NOT [leaves orbicular or reniform]

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flowers small, numerous, greenish; NOT [flowers colored]

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flowers with only one floral ring, with sepals but not petals

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perianth segments 2-5; NOT [perianth segments 6]

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flowers perfect

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fruit dry when ripe; NOT [fruit fleshy when ripe]