Atriplex species - Oraches

Atriplex and Chenopodium (Goosefoots and Fat-hen) are similar plants with green / yellow flowers and often with mealy leaves. However, Atriplex has separate male and female flowers with the female flowers and fruit enclosed in two bracts, whereas Chenopodium have bisexual flowers surrounded by 4 – 5 tepals (sepals / petals) which may be fused at the base.

To identify them, work out the arrangement of the flowers, look at the leaves, are they mealy or fleshy and note the shape of the lobes in the lower leaves compared with the upper leaves.

Atriplex patula Common Orache is green and not mealy. It has lobed leaves and the lobes tend to point forwards. The lobes are bigger in relation to the rest of the leaf than Chenopodium album (Fat-hen). The leaf lobe has more acute lobes than Chenopodium ficifolium (Ivy leaved Goosefoot).  The leaf tapers into the stalk as opposed to Atriplex prostrata where the base of the leaf makes a clear right-angle with the stalk.

The upper leaves are unlobed. Later in the season the lower leaves can fall off, leaving only these upper leaves often on a rigid, wiry stem.

Atriplex prostrata can be separated from A. patula because the lower lobes are pointing sideways and are right-angled on the stem.