General: Iodinebush (Allenrolfea occidentalis), or pickleweed, is a dark-colored (from a distance), low-growing subshrub found in damp areas with salty soils. The leaves are tiny and obscure, but the jointed stems are long and many-branched (almost vine-like), fleshy, green, looking somewhat like very thin pickles, hence one of the common the names: pickleweed. The stem branching pattern is alternate.

Iodinebush (pickleweed) is an uncommon component of vegetation communities on damp, salty soils in desert flats areas in the Upper Sonoran (Mojave Desert Scrub) life zone. This is one of the few plants that can grow in the salty soils at the bottom of Death Valley.

Family: Goosefoot (Chenopodiaceae).

Other Names: Pickleweed.

Plant Form: Subshrub; loose mat or low shrub of fleshy vine-like stems covering the ground.

Height: Usually to about knee-high; to 6 feet.

Bark: Green.

Stems: Woody near the base, then fleshy, green, branched, jointed with internodes 0.2 to 0.8 inches apart.

Leaves: Leaves sessile and scale-like.

Flowers: Blooms during summer. Inflorescence: small flowers without petals spirally arranged on a short spike.

Seeds:

Habitat: Desert flats with damp, salty soils.

Elevation: To about 4,000 feet.

Distribution: California to Oregon, east to Idaho and Texas, south into northern Mexico. Look for this species in wet areas in Death Valley and Gold Butte.

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