salt bush ~ 10/09/13 ~ Elkhorn Slough

 salt bush/fat-hen among pickleweed

Atriplex prostrata among Salicornia pacifica

Chenopodiaceae (aka Amaranthaceae)

When fellow bloggers post seasonal pictures from their neck of the woods, like the common milkweed, I'm reminded of how much I absolutely loved autumn in Ohio - the vibrant colors, the damp woodsy smell, the crisp chill in the air.  Sigh.  It's taken me a while to appreciate autumn here on the coast of CA.  I tend to seek out places, like Garzas Creek, that remind me of Ohio.  Amazingly, autumn colors occur in the slough, too, where salt water meets fresh water.

I try to take full advantage of nature center displays and will often take pictures before a hike as a take-along ID guide.  I love it when they have sample plants with identification tags... that is until what they show cannot be confirmed anywhere else.  Erg.  Assigning names for this post was a bit of a challenge since there have been recent changes among different classification systems.  Same or different species?  Who knows? Other names associated with this particular salt bush are:  A. triangularis ssp. hastata (as shown above), spearscale, A. patula ssp. hastata.  Even fat-hen refers to different kinds of plants.  Then, there's the question of is it native (as shown above) or naturalized?  Other names associated with local pickleweed are:  Pacific swampfire, S. virginica, glasswort, S. depressa.  And finally, Jepson, our CA plant bible, sticks with Chenopodiaceae as the family name.  Phew.

dodder and pickleweed ~ 07/22/11 ~ Elkhorn Slough

salt marsh dodder on pickleweed

The orange stringy stuff is dodder, and the cactus-looking plant is pickleweed. When I first saw dodder at Elkhorn Slough, I thought someone's brightly-colored, tangled, plastic fishing line had washed in from the last high tide. It took seeing dodder at Pinnacles, too far away from any fishing, for me to figure out it is a plant, parasitic and alive.

blooming salt marsh dodder
Cuscuta salina 
Convolvulaceae (formerly Cuscutaceae)

So, imagine my further surprise to find dodder blooming... not just tiny little blooms, but relatively good-sized white blooms, way bigger than the thin orange stems supporting them. As of 1998, it has been moved to the morning glory family. Wild.

blooming pickleweed
Salicornia virginica (aka Salicornia depressa, Sarcocornia pacifica)
Amaranthaceae (formerly Chenopodiaceae)

When I first saw the dodder blooms, I thought it was the pickleweed blooming. Nope. Pickleweed has barely noticeable white blooms as shown above, which apparently has allergenic pollen. It, too, has been moved to a new family.

ps 10/07/11 - I wished I had linked to the reference of where I read the pollen was allergenic. I do remember a volunteer-looking fellow had stopped as I was taking these pictures to point out the tiny flowers on the pickleweed. We had a brief quip about how that was unexpected considering the more showy dodder blooms. In any case, the main reason for this postscript is that Wanderin' Weeta states the white stuff on the pickleweed are actually salt crystals, not flowers. I haven't been able to find any information about this. Do you know?

pickleweed ~ 10/16/10 ~ Elkhorn Slough

pickleweed / glasswort
Salicornia virginica
Amaranthaceae (formerly Chenopodiaceae)

I took the first picture above, because the red color was so striking. From a distance it looks muddy. I wasn't aware that pickleweed turns red in the autumn until I started looking into it. The segments turn red before dropping off, similarly to some deciduous trees, I guess.

Calflora lists 6 species of Salicornia, all native to CA. I'm listing this as S. virginica, because the Elkhorn Slough Plant List shows only this species. For an interesting article on eating pickleweed and to get thoroughly confused as to the taxonomy, check out this San Francisco Chronicle article.

ps 08/03/11 - I've made changes to the family name above.

western pygmy-blue on pickleweed
Brephidium exile on Salicornia virginica
Amaranthaceae (formerly Chenopodiaceae)

Oh, how I wish my camera could do close-ups in focus. This was a beautiful, bright orange copper that posed for the longest time. There was a little bit of gray shading above near the body. Below it was a solid gray with no distinguishable markings.

ps 03/07/10 - I originally posted this under "unknown copper butterfly" with the label * can you ID?, but thanks to Art Shapiro's help on another post, he helped me ID this, too. Here's what he said, "Decided to explore your blog and found I can help you with another ID. Your "unknown copper butterfly" of July 6 09 is actually a female Pygmy Blue, Brephidium exile. Note that it is sitting on a Pickleweed (Salicornia), presumably in a salt marsh. Pickleweed is one of its host plants, and saline and alkaline marshes are its native habitat. Check it out on my site. Your other butterfly IDs are all correct--congratulations!" Again, thanks Art!

As a side note, I've added the label blue butterflies, not because the butterflies are necessarily blue in color, but to group the subfamily Polyommatinae together.

ps 08/03/11 - What was once the goosefoot family is now included under the amaranth family by APG and followed by Jepson.

salt marsh dodder on pickleweed
Cuscuta salina on Salicornia virginica
Convolvulaceae (formerly Cuscutaceae) and Amaranthaceae (formerly Chenopodiaceae)

I first posted dodder from my Pinnacles hike on April 16, 2009. I found it interesting that this dodder was on pickleweed, considering I would assume there's high salt content. I don't know enough about how the salt is stored in pickleweed or how the dodder obtains it nutrients from plants to explain this.

ps 05/09/10 - By happenstance, I came across this Elkhorn Slough Research site and was able to confirm IDs of both plants to species. A better summary of the research is here. Interesting to note Wikipedia says recent research has placed dodder in the morning glory family (Convolvulaceae), but I'll stick with Calflora until they make a correction. Plus, pickleweed is now being placed in the amaranth family (Amaranthaceae). And, no, the Katie in the article is not me.
ps 08/03/11 - Both dodder and pickleweed have been moved to new families by APG and followed by Jepson.