Hi, While walking along Boundary Bay in SW BC, I came across this plant growing along the dike. My initial thought is that the plant is lambs quarters (Chenopodium album), but another opinion is the plant may be an orache (Atriplex spp.). The plant is not in flower at this time, so I only have the photo of the emerging buds. The leaves are unwettable and there are white specks on the underside. Thanks in advance.
To me this looks like Orach; it doesn't have the right leaf shape or colour to be the common weed, Chenopodium album, which I see regularly in my garden. Atriplex dioica is the likeliest species, and the white specs on the leaves are probably salt, which these plants are known to exude.
Vitog, so is this plant missing the serrated leaf margin that would be more indicative of lambs quarters?
The missing serrated leaf margin of lambs quarters is one indication as is the light green colour, which is unlike the gray-green that I associated with lambs quarters. The shape of some of the leaves corresponds nicely with this description of Orach's leaves from an ancient source (Euell Gibbons's "Stalking the Blue-Eyed Scallop"): "These are roughly triangular, 1 to 3 inches long and somewhat halberd-shaped, that is, shaped like an arrowhead, except that the two barbs on the lower edges are turned outward instead of pointing downward." Orach is also a seaside plant, which corresponds nicely with the habitat in which you found it.
