Suaeda calceoliformis
 
Western Sea-Blite

Upper Leaf Bottom

Last Mountain Lake National Wildlife Area
23-Aug-2019

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

bullet

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

 

bullet

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
bullet

herbs; NOT [shrubs or trees]

bullet

land plants; NOT [water plants]

bullet

plants not parasitic on trees, rooted in soil

bullet

plants with more than one pair of leaves

bullet

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

bullet

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

bullet

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

bullet

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

bullet

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

bullet

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

bullet

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

bullet

flowers perfect

bullet

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