Atriplex argenteaNutt.

silver orachesilverscale orachesilverscale saltbush

WFO wfo-0000555812 Accepted WFO 2026-06 8 photographs CC BY

Plate 1 figs. a–h · 1 observation

This species has been photographed under an open licence only 1 time, so some figures below are different views of the same plant, taken on the same day, rather than different individuals. They are usually different parts of it: the leaf, the flower, the bark.

Atriplex argentea, photographed by Matt Lavin
fig. a Matt Lavin, CC BY 4.0 / 2012-06-12 / obs. 171764868
Atriplex argentea, photographed by Matt Lavin
fig. b Matt Lavin, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 171764855
Atriplex argentea, photographed by Matt Lavin
fig. c Matt Lavin, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 171764857
Atriplex argentea, photographed by Matt Lavin
fig. d Matt Lavin, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 171764859
Atriplex argentea, photographed by Matt Lavin
fig. e Matt Lavin, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 171764864
Atriplex argentea, photographed by Matt Lavin
fig. f Matt Lavin, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 171764866
Atriplex argentea, photographed by Matt Lavin
fig. g Matt Lavin, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 171764871
Atriplex argentea, photographed by Matt Lavin
fig. h Matt Lavin, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 171764869

Every figure is a research-grade observation under CC0, CC BY or CC BY-SA, rehosted with the photographer’s name, the licence and the observation it came from. Photographs under a NonCommercial licence are excluded from this site and are never stored, which costs us a great many pictures and is not negotiable.

Native range 23 botanical countries

Regions where Atriplex argentea is native: Alberta, Arizona, British Columbia, California, Colorado, Idaho, Kansas, Manitoba, Mexico Northeast, Montana, Nebraska, Nevada, New Mexico, New York, North Dakota, Oklahoma, Oregon, Saskatchewan, South Dakota, Texas, Utah, Washington, Wyoming AlbertaArizonaBritish ColumbiaCaliforniaColoradoIdahoKansasManitobaMexico NortheastMontanaNebraskaNevadaNew MexicoNew YorkNorth DakotaOklahomaOregonSaskatchewanSouth DakotaTexasUtahWashingtonWyoming
Native distribution of Atriplex argentea, after Kew’s World Checklist of Vascular Plants. Introduced, extinct and doubtful records are excluded, so this is where the plant is from, not everywhere it now grows.
RegionTDWG codeContinent
Alberta ABT NORTHERN AMERICA
Arizona ARI
British Columbia BRC
California CAL
Colorado COL
Idaho IDA
Kansas KAN
Manitoba MAN
Mexico Northeast MXE
Montana MNT
Nebraska NEB
Nevada NEV
New Mexico NWM
New York NWY
North Dakota NDA
Oklahoma OKL
Oregon ORE
Saskatchewan SAS
South Dakota SDA
Texas TEX
Utah UTA
Washington WAS
Wyoming WYO

Region boundaries approximated from Natural Earth (public domain) and mapped to TDWG World Geographical Scheme for Recording Plant Distributions (WGSRPD) level-3 botanical countries (Brummitt 2001). Indicative, not the official WGSRPD geometry.

Where it actually grows measured, from 32 observations

Condition 5th percentile Median 95th percentile
Coldest month, mean daily low -14.0 °C -10.5 °C 12.8 °C
Warmest month, mean daily high 19.3 °C 26.8 °C 34.6 °C
Annual rainfall 185 mm 307 mm 410 mm
Rainfall in the driest quarter 4 mm 30 mm 48 mm

It is found where winters bring hard frost. This is not care advice and it is not a forecast. It is a measurement: we sampled the climate at every one of the 32 research-grade observations of Atriplex argentea that carry a coordinate, and this is the range those places actually span. The 5th and 95th percentiles are used rather than the minimum and maximum, because a single cultivated specimen in a heated conservatory should not widen a tropical plant's range to the Arctic.

This is not a hardiness zone. A USDA zone is the average annual extreme minimum temperature. The figure above is the mean daily minimum of the coldest month, which is a different quantity and is typically far warmer. Reading one as the other would place a plant several zones too warm, so we do not publish a hardiness zone, because we do not have one.

Also published as 16 synonyms

A synonym is not an error. It is a record of botanists disagreeing, in print, about where this plant belongs. Each of these was somebody’s considered answer.

  • Atriplex argentea subsp. argentea
  • Atriplex argentea subsp. expansa (S.Watson) H.M.Hall & Clem.
  • Atriplex argentea var. argentea
  • Atriplex argentea var. mohavensis (M.E.Jones) S.L.Welsh
  • Atriplex caput-medusae Eastw.
  • Atriplex expansa S.Watson
  • Atriplex expansa var. mohavensis M.E.Jones
  • Atriplex expansa var. trinervata (Jeps.) J.F.Macbr.
  • Atriplex hillmanii (M.E.Jones) Standl.
  • Atriplex longitrichoma Stutz, G.L.Chu & S.C.Sand.
  • Atriplex mohavensis (M.E.Jones) Standl.
  • Atriplex rydbergii Standl.
  • Atriplex saccaria var. caput-medusae (Eastw.) S.L.Welsh
  • Atriplex sordida Standl.
  • Atriplex trinervata Jeps.
  • Obione argentea Moq.

Sourcesevery claim on this page

  1. World Flora Online Plant List. accepted name, authority, classification. CC0. Retrieved 2026-07-12.
  2. iNaturalist. photographs and flowering annotations, CC0 / CC BY / CC BY-SA only. per photograph. Retrieved 2026-06-27.
  3. Wikidata. common name (P1843), joined on the World Flora Online identifier (P7715). CC0. Retrieved 2026-07-13.
  4. Kew, World Checklist of Vascular Plants (WCVP v16). native distribution by TDWG level-3 botanical country, and life form. CC BY 3.0. Retrieved 2026-06-04.

We publish what we can source and we say so when we cannot. This page has no care advice and no toxicity claim, because we do not yet have those from a source we can cite.