Four Wing Saltbush

FOUR WING SALT

BUSHARTICLE & PHOTO BY PATINA THOMPSON

Chances are, if you have a desert pasture, you’re likely to have a community of four-wing saltbush (Atriplex canescens) shrubs, which serve as a great browsing source for livestock. Both the scientific name and common names are a perfect description of its outward qualities. The Genus name ‘Atriplex’ means herbs and shrubs, while the species name ‘canescens’ means grayish-white or hoary, a reference to the color of the leaves. The “fourwing” name refers to the seed, that has four paper-like wings in a perfect “x” shape. The saltbush descriptor denotes the soils in which the shrub is commonly found.

Four-wing saltbush is a member of the Chenopodiaceae (aka Goosefoot) family, many of which are considered weeds; like russian thistle, pigweed, and kochia, but the cultivated cousins are sugar beets, spinach and swiss chard. It’s also referred to as wingscale, chamiza, buckwheat shrub or salt sage.

The large wings of the seed facilitate dispersion by the wind, tumbling away from the mother plant. Four-wings grow in most of the Western U.S. to Mexico from 3,000 to 8,000 feet in elevation, and is the most widely distributed saltbush. The shrub grows an average of two to three feet tall and in a wide range of soils from clays to sands. It does well in soils with high lime content, and soils with heavy saline-alkali areas, but is not an indicator of these conditions. The plant is found in desert flats, gravelly washes, mesas, ridges, slopes, and even on sand dunes.

Reproduction in these plants is dioecious, the Latin word for “two homes.” Male and female flowers are found on separate plants (mostly). But the plants are known to switch their floral arrangements from monoecious to dioecious and back again! The shrubs bloom from mid-spring to mid-summer.

Native Americans of the Southwest were known to harvest the leaves and seeds for food, either raw or cooked. Seeds were cooked like oatmeal and said to be a good source of the natural B vitamin, niacin. Ground-up seeds were mixed with sugar and water for a drink called pinole. In Zuni tribes, handfuls of the male blossoms were crushed and mixed with a little water to create a soap for washing or treating ant bites, suggesting the plant contains a soap-like compound, saponin. Infusion of the twigs and leaves created a yellow dye used by the Navajos.

Four-wing saltbush is an important browse plant for wildlife and livestock. Deer, rabbits and pronghorn feed on the leaves, and quail use the shrub for cover, roosting and as a food source. Small rodents use the shrub’s protection for burrows. This is a very nutritious plant for grazing livestock; it has a good rating for sheep and goats, fair for cattle, and poor for horses. It is well adapted to winter use, when its rating changes from fair to good. The seed crop is extremely nutritious and eaten so extensively by livestock that a deferred grazing system should be used to produce the maximum forage yield for livestock.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR: Contributor Patina Thompson earned a bachelor’s degree in Wildlife, Watershed and Rangeland Resources from the University of Arizona, Tucson, Ariz. She works in the agriculture insurance field. She is a wife, mother, rancher, hunter, photographer and conservationist in southeastern Arizona.