What are the characteristics of the Atriplex canescens plant:
Atriplex canescens, commonly known as fourwing saltbush, is a species of flowering shrub native to much of western North America. It is characterized by green leaves with whitish edges, grey-green stems, and small yellow flowers in the summer and fall. The plant grows in many different habitats including desert, sagebrush steppe and pinyon-juniper woodland. It acts as an important food source for livestock and wildlife such as mule deer, cattle, badger, antelope squirrels and other small mammals.
Atriplex is a tasty plant and suitable for livestock feeding. It is resistant to drought, lack of water, and high heat and grows well in salty environments, in addition, it reduces soil salinity and thus creates a favorable environment for the growth and regeneration of other plants. All in all, this plant is suitable for revitalizing and improving pastures with its good fodder yield.
What is the importance of the Atriplex plant:
Atriplex generally has 417 species and is considered one of the best plants for providing fodder in dry and salty areas. In a general view, we can define the importance of Atriplex as follows:
1- Ecological importance of Atriplex plant:
Resistant to drought, humidity, and low rainfall
Cold resistance: tolerates winter frosts up to zero degrees
Salinity resistance: Grows in high soil salinity.
Atriplex fodder value:
Atriplex plants can be used as direct fodder by cattle.
Atriplex plant soil requirements:
It likes salty or salty chalk lands.
Atriplex plants can be used by which animals:
Sheep, camels, game (mountain goats)
What is the chemical composition of the Atriplex plant:
From 100 grams of Atriplex leaves, 17 grams of protein, 3 grams of oil, 56 grams of carbohydrates, and 24 grams of ash can be obtained.
How to plant Atriplex plant:
1- Atriplex is very important in terms of fodder production, being green on most days of the year, growing in salty and poor and even swampy lands.
2- How to grow Atriplex is done in two ways: direct seeding (seeding) and seedling work.
3- Direct sowing should be done after cleaning the seeds.
4- The amount of seed used in the seeding method is 15 to 30 kg per hectare.
5- To collect seeds from Atriplex plants, it should be avoided to be grazed by livestock in spring and autumn.
6- In Atriplex potted planting, the soil of the pot should be filled with three parts of soil, fertilizer, and sand.
7- The number of seeds planted in each pot should be enough to grow 3 to 4 seeds in each plastic pot.
8- Thinning the seedlings is done when the Atriplex bushes have 3 to 4 leaves.
9- The best time to transfer the seedlings is when the height of the seedlings has reached about 20 cm.
10- The most suitable depth for planting seedlings on the main land is about 30 cm.
11- After planting seedlings in the ground, if there is no rain in the first years, the planted seedlings should be watered.
What is the role of the Atriplex plant in improving saline soils:
Atriplex or wild spinach in salty deserts and deserts is considered a dominant plant of salty plant communities. This plant is native to dry areas and there are species of it natively in Iran as well. Its species are trees and shrubs, its foliage spreads around, very deep and dense roots that reach up to about 5 meters, and its leaves are single and bluish-green or gray. Atriplex plant is one of the salinity-loving plants and some species such as Polycaria and Monati tolerate very high salinity of table salt and boron in the culture environment.
