Atriplex: Answers to key questions in Budd's Flora and Flora of Alberta leading to this genus. 

	herbs or low shrubs
	plants not spiny or prickly
	plants with hyaline or white encrusting scales on stem and leaves; NOT [plants densely pubescent with yellowish brown stellate hairs]
	stems not fleshy
	stems not jointed
	leaves alternate; NOT [leaves and branches opposite]
	leaves not reduced to scales
	petioles shorter than the lamina; NOT [petioles as long as and generally much longer than the lamina]
	flowers not sunk into the stem
	flowers not subtended by scarious bracts
	plants monoecious or dioecious
	staminate flowers without bracteoles but with a 3-5 lobed calyx; NOT [staminate flowers in catkin-like spikes, without a perianth, but subtended by peltate bracts]
	sepals herbaceous or fleshy; NOT [sepals scarious]
	pistillate flowers lacking a perianth but possessing a pair of bracteoles that enclose the ovary and enlarge in fruit
	fruiting bract united, at least at base
	fruiting bracts not covered with silvery, silky hairs
	fruit not 2-toothed at apex
	seed coat not winged at apex
	seed coat leathery; NOT [seed coat membranous]

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 Atriplex. 

	herbs or occasionally low shrubs; NOT [shrubs or trees]
	land plants; NOT [water plants]
	plants not parasitic on trees, rooted in soil
	plants not twining and climbing
	plants without milky sap
	plants monoecious or dioecious
	flowers with only one floral ring, with sepals but not petals
	pistillate flowers without calyx
	stigmas 2; NOT [stigmas 1]
	fruit not catkin-like; NOT [pistillate flowers and fruit in catkin-like spikes]
	fruit enclosed in 2 bracteoles; NOT [fruit enclosed by 2-4 perianth segments]
	NOT [fruit 3-seeded, splitting open at maturity]