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A Phylogenetic Study Of The Suffrutescent Shrubs In The Genus Atriplex, C. Lorenzo Pope

Theses and Dissertations

Growing on dry saline soils throughout the Intermountain Region of the United States is a group of herbaceous, perennial species of Atriplex, including A. corrugata, A. cuneata, A. cuneata ssp. Introgressa, A. falcata, A. gardneri, A. tridentata, and A. welshii, designated as the Atriplex gardneri complex. Highly adaptive and competitive in the arid salt deserts, these species are valuable as forage for livestock and wildlife. Because of extensive variation present within this complex, considerable taxonomic confusion has resulted. To clarify taxonomic and phylogenetic relationships, selected populations and plants were analyzed morphologically, cytologically, ecologically, phenologically, and genetically. Polyploidy is common within …