Leaves are linear, lanceolate, or even short-elliptic, ~1-3.5 cm long, and terete (rounded) in cross-section. They range in covering from glabrous (smooth) to pubescent (finely fuzzy or woolly) or even to densely hairy, and they are generally glaucous (covered with a fine dust or resin that comes off on contact, like the covering on grapes or blueberries). They are, then, light green to white in appearance. The leaves are alternate, but they are so crowded sometimes that it's hard to see that. They have entire (smooth) margins. The leaves are densely crowded on the stems, and they vary in orientation to the stem from ascending to widely spreading. They are nearly sessile (very short petiole). The stems are numerous and much branched, and some are erect while others are decumbent or spreading out toward the ground. The inflorescence consists of clusters scattered throughout the plant, with 1- 3 tiny flowers (~1-3 mm across) per cluster. The calyx is fused, with 5 rounded fleshy light green sepal lobes (if you can see that well), no petals, 0-5 yellow stamens, and 2-5 pistils. Blooms July through October. Fruit a small bladder enclosed within the calyx, with one tiny (1-2 mm) shiny black or brown flattened seed. The plant is a shrub or subshrub (woody below and herbaceous above, looking like a small shrub). Found on coastal bluffs and on the margins of salt marshes on the Southern California coast and the Channel Islands below 15 m in elevation.
Suaeda taxifolia aka S. californica (Amaranthaceae or Chenopodiaceae): woolly seablite or seablite
The development of this key was partially funded through the Geoscience Diversity Enhancement Program (Award #0703798) and through a course of re-assigned time provided by the CSULB Scholarly and Creative Activities Committee. Thanks also to the students in sections of biogeography, introductory physical geography, GDEP, and LSAMP for "test-driving" various editions of this key.