Atriplex nummularia Lindl., 1848

Verloove, Filip, 2021, New records in vascular plants alien to Tenerife (Spain, Canary Islands), Biodiversity Data Journal 9, pp. 62878-62878 : 62878

Atriplex nummularia Lindl., 1848

Atriplex nummularia J. Exped. Trop. Australia 64. 1848.

Distribution

TENERIFE: San Cristóbal de La Laguna, Bajamar, TF-13 road N of the village, roadside, +/- 10 individuals, 07.11.2014, F. Verloove 11242 (BR). https://observation.org/observation/204634934/

Notes

This Australian shrub is sometimes introduced in arid, harsh areas (e.g. Middle East, North Africa), mostly as an ornamental or as a windbreak, for erosion control, forage etc. It occasionally reproduces from seed, naturalises and is sometimes considered to be an undesirable weed. For example, it is a top ten prominent invader in the Nama-Karoo and Succulent Karoo biomes in South Africa ( Henderson 2007). In the Canary Islands, it was recently reported from Fuerteventura and Gran Canaria ( Verloove 2013, Verloove and Guiggi 2013). A small naturalised population with ca. 10 individuals has been known from Bajamar in Tenerife for many years.

Atriplex nummularia is much reminiscent of A. halimus L., a species that naturally occurs in the Canary Islands. However, at least part of these populations undoubtedly refers to introduced races. For instance, a well-known expansive population from Las Chafiras ( Barone 2003), also in Tenerife, consists of diploids, whereas native populations are tetraploids (comm. A. Reyes-Betancort). The latter possibly correspond with var. Atriplex halimus schweinfurthii Boiss. (compare with Walker et al. 2005), a variety that occurs in arid zones with milder winters. A. nummularia , in turn, is an octoploid ( Sampson and Byrne 2012). It usually is dioecious and A. halimus monoecious, although exceptions to this rule occur.