Atriplex leucoclada Boiss.
رغل، شجرة البياض
For people
- Eaten by people
- Unknown
- Toxic to people
- Unknown
For livestock
- Grazed by livestock
- Good fodder
- Toxic to livestock
- Not toxic
Edibility and safety notes
A valued salt-bush forage, grazed by sheep, goats and camels; the book rates it excellent pasture. No reliable source documents people eating this species, although leaves of several other Atriplex species are eaten as vegetables; do not eat it on that basis alone. Saltbushes can accumulate salt, oxalates and nitrates, so treat it as unverified for human consumption.
This guide is a hobby project, not expert advice. Never eat a wild plant, or feed it to animals, on the strength of this page alone. Read the disclaimer
Description
A small erect perennial shrub up to about 1 m tall, with branched whitish-grey stems. Leaves simple, alternate, ovate-triangular and silvery-scaly. Flowers tiny and greenish, in spike-like inflorescences. The fruit is enclosed between two bracteoles. A halophyte with several adaptations to very salty soils.
Habitat
Grows on sabkha, coastal and inland salt marshes with high salt accumulation, and occasionally on silty soils. Prefers sunny situations on dry sandy or gritty-sandy soil.
Distribution
Saharo-Arabian and Irano-Turanian element: Egypt and Sinai, Palestine, Syria, Iraq, the Arabian Peninsula (Bahrain, Kuwait, eastern Saudi Arabia, Qatar, UAE) and Iran to Central Asia. Occurs in Oman.
Pastoral value
Used as a food source for livestock in arid regions. Salt-tolerant nature makes it valuable for pastoral use in saline environments.
Other uses
Used for erosion control, soil desalination and CO2 sequestration. Planted for rehabilitation of saline and degraded lands in biosaline agriculture.
Sources
- الدليل الحقلي المصور للنباتات البرية في سلطنة عُمان (BOOK.pdf p.77)
- Qatar e-Nature — Orache (Atriplex leucoclada) — enature.qa
- Flora of Qatar — Atriplex leucoclada — floraofqatar.com
- Saudipedia — Shrubby Orache — saudipedia.com
- PMC — Phytochemical Investigation and Anti-inflammatory Potential of Atriplex leucoclada Boiss — pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov
- Nutrient Composition of Atriplex Leaves Grown in Saudi Arabia (Journal of Range Management) — repository.arizona.edu
- POWO — Atriplex leucoclada var. turcomanica (synonymy under A. turcomanica) — powo.science.kew.org
