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Pop saltbush

Atriplex holocarpa

Pop saltbush
Photo: Mark Marathon, CC BY-SA 4.0

Pop saltbush is a small, low-growing, short-lived saltbush from arid inland Australia, valued as a drought and salt tolerant plant for dry, saline sites. Its seed capsules pop when stepped on, which gives it its common name.

Family
Amaranthaceae (Amaranth & beet family)
Grows as
Annual
Light
Full sun
Water
Water sparingly; it is drought tolerant and prefers to dry out between waterings.
Soil
Free-draining, sandy or saline soils; it will not grow on sand alone in the wild, so a loamy or saline-tolerant mix suits it.
Temperature
Tolerates hot, arid conditions and frost in its native range; exact limits not documented in sources.
How easy
Easy
Native range
C. & S. Australia
Climate
desert or dry shrubland

About

Atriplex holocarpa is a low-growing species of Atriplex (saltbush) found throughout arid regions of Australia. A. holocarpa is commonly known as pop saltbush (a name it shares with Atriplex spongiosa), because its carpels pop when stepped upon.

Atriplex holocarpa was described by Ferdinand von Mueller during his 1859 voyages through inland Australia. The name 'Atriplex' is from the Latin atriplexum, meaning 'orache', a plant used in ancient times as a spinach substitute.

Where it grows

Atriplex holocarpa is an Australian saltbush species found in all states except Tasmania. A. holocarpa is found in arid inland areas of southwestern Queensland, western New South Wales, and northwestern Victoria through to southern Western Australia, often on floodplains or sandy flats.

Other Atriplex plants

Tubercled saltbush · Swamp Saltbush · Fan Saltbush · Silverscale saltbush · Native Orache · Atriplex billardierei · Silver saltbush · Fourwing saltbush · Gray saltbush · Flat-topped saltbush · Shadscale saltbush · Heartscale

Text excerpted from the Wikipedia article Atriplex holocarpa by its contributors, under CC BY-SA 4.0; the excerpts and the care summary drawn from them are shared under the same licence.

The care summary was written by AI (Claude, Anthropic) from the sources on this page, with general growing knowledge where they are silent. Check before relying on it.

Life form, climate and native range: World Checklist of Vascular Plants, Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew (CC BY 3.0), reformatted; see Plants of the World Online.

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