Spear Orach; Spear Saltbush; Spear Salt Bush
Atriplex patula
Not native to Louisiana. How scores work Is it native here?
Profile 29%
- Soil moisture
- Average to wet
No photograph yet. Looking for an old drawing…
At a glance
Not yet recorded · Height · Spread · Light · Life cycle · Leaves · Bloom
This plant is missing most of its facts, so Quercus is looking them up in old botany books.
Recorded in 1 Louisiana parish.
Who uses this plant?
7CaterpillarsGenus host records with ranges including LA
Genus host records with ranges including LA · Atriplex
- Achyra rantalisGarden Webworm Moth
- Bleptina caradrinalisBent-Winged Owlet, Variable Snout
- Emmelina monodactylaMorning-Glory Plume Moth
- Herpetogramma bipunctalisSouthern Beet Webworm, Two-Spotted Herpetogramma
- Hymenia perspectalisSpotted Beet Webworm
- Pholisora catullusCommon Sootywing
- Spoladea recurvalisHawaiian Beet Webworm
—BeesSoutheastern regional records
—Specialist beesPollen specialists
1BirdsRecorded genus food-resource interactions; not a state feeding claim
Recorded genus food-resource interactions; not a state feeding claim · Atriplex
- Zenaida macrouraMourning Dove
Direct food only: birds recorded eating this genus across North America. Caterpillars on host plants also feed nesting birds. NC Native Plant Society: butterfly gardening
Plant details
- Family
- AMARANTHACEAE
What its natural habitat tells you
Safety has not been reviewed for this plant; check toxicity and thorns before planting.
Conservation status
| Louisiana rank | SNR |
|---|---|
| Global rank | G5 |
| LA status | Not verified |
| Federal status | Not verified |
Native alternatives
Find natives for your gardenSources
- Weakley, Flora of the Southeastern United States (2025)
- USDA PLANTS
- Louisiana occurrence source
- Shropshire & Tallamy 2025, Lepidoptera of North America north of Mexico, ZooKeys 1261 (ODbL)
- Noori, Seltmann & Orr 2026, A curated and integrated dataset for exploring global bee-plant interactions (GloBI), Zenodo, CC BY 4.0
- Smith, Bachelder, Russell, Morales, Mosher & Seltmann 2024, Bee-Specialization-Modeling v0.6.1 (specialist host table compiled from J. Fowler's pollen specialist bee lists), Zenodo, CC BY 4.0
- Hurlbert, Olsen, Sawyer & Winner 2021, Avian Diet Database, Scientific Data 8: 260 (CC0)
- Narango, Tallamy & Shropshire 2020, Few keystone plant genera support the majority of Lepidoptera species, Nature Communications