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Atriplex semibaccata; photograph (c) Aiver, some rights reserved (CC BY) CC BY(c) Aiver, some rights reserved (CC BY) · observed growing wild · 2026-07-04

Atriplex semibaccata R.Br.

Australian saltbush; Berry saltbush; Diamond saltbush; Half-berry saltbush

Amaranthaceae · New South Wales, Queensland +3

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Atriplex semibaccata, photograph (c) Marc Whitaker, some rights reserved (CC BY)Atriplex semibaccata, photograph (c) Eric Alan Isaacson, some rights reserved (CC BY)Atriplex semibaccata, photograph (c) Eric Alan Isaacson, some rights reserved (CC BY)Atriplex semibaccata, photograph (c) Eric Alan Isaacson, some rights reserved (CC BY)Atriplex semibaccata, photograph (c) Eric Alan Isaacson, some rights reserved (CC BY)Atriplex semibaccata, photograph (c) Eric Alan Isaacson, some rights reserved (CC BY) 90 photographs ›
Habitat figures
Cold floor (1 night in 100)
0.6°C
Record low -2.8 °C in 44 years, at a typical spot in the range NASA POWER
Warmest month, mean daily high
30°C
Jan and Feb at the habitat CHELSA
Rain a year (median across the range)
399mm
10 months of 25 mm or more in the median year CHELSA
Open-sky light
15–50DLI
Lowest to highest month (DLI) CHELSA
The year in your months, northern hemisphere
  1. Jan
  2. Feb
  3. Mar
  4. Apr
  5. May
  6. Jun
  7. Jul
  8. Aug
  9. Sep
  10. Oct
  11. Nov
  12. Dec
Rain spread: 70% of the median year's rain takes 8 months, so no short rainy season. rain rule, CHELSA
Northern hemisphere unless you set your site. The chart is in the habitat's months.

Summary

Atriplex semibaccata, commonly known as Australian saltbush, berry saltbush, or creeping saltbush, is a species of flowering plant in the family Amaranthaceae and is endemic to Australia. It is a perennial herb native to Western Australia, South Australia, Queensland and New South Wales, but has been introduced into other states and to overseas countries. It flowers and fruits in spring, and propagates from seed when the fruit splits open. This species of saltbush is adapted to inconsistent rainfall, temperature and humidity extremes and to poor soil. More on Wikipedia ›

Quoted from Wikipedia, "Atriplex semibaccata", CC BY-SA 4.0.

Cultivation

Seasons

The rain rule reads no short rainy season: 70% of the median year's rain (289 mm of 386 mm) takes 8 months, May to December. Mean temperature moves 14.7 °C between the warmest and coldest month. Months are the habitat's, southern hemisphere; shifted six months for a northern-hemisphere collection: November to June.

Rain

386 mm in the median year at the habitat, 289 mm of it May to December. Wettest month June at 42 mm, driest month January at 22 mm. Across the grid cells of the range the year's total runs 293 mm to 623 mm, the 10th to 90th percentile of each cell's own year. The median of the cells' own yearly totals, 399 mm, is the year's rain at the top of the page; the 386 mm here is the median year's, the twelve monthly medians added, which the rain rule reads. Habitat calendar, southern hemisphere; median year across the grid cells of the range, CHELSA.

Light

Open sky over the habitat: 15 to 50 mol/m²/day across the year (daily light integral, median year across the grid cells of the range, CHELSA; the lowest 10th-percentile month across the cells is 12, the highest 90th-percentile month 51).

Warmth and air
Temperature

Coldest: the 1st-percentile night over 44 years at a typical spot in the range is 0.6 °C, the absolute minimum -2.8 °C, 77 frost nights in 44 years, 1.8 a year (NASA POWER daily minima). Warmest: the 99th-percentile day is 42.5 °C. Monthly means: the coldest month's mean nightly low 5.3 °C in July (across the grid cells of the range 4.6 °C to 7.0 °C), the warmest month's mean daily high 30.1 °C in January (median year across the grid cells of the range, CHELSA). Cold floor: 0.6 °C, which is the 1st-percentile night over 44 years at a typical spot in the range (NASA POWER).

Humidity

Relative humidity at the habitat: 48 to 61% across the year (monthly means, median year across the grid cells of the range, CHELSA). A figure about the air, saying nothing about how the plant takes water.

How this section is made

Each card states this species' habitat figures with their sources, and what two fixed rules read from them; nothing here says what the plant does, wants or tolerates. The rules · the terms.

Seasons. Read from the median year of CHELSA monthly rainfall and mean temperature across the grid cells of the range: the rain rule takes the smallest set of months carrying 70% of the rain and calls it winter when its mean is more than half a degree below the year's, summer when more than that above, and neither in between; the temperature rule, used only under 120 mm, names the cooler six months when they are at least a degree cooler than the other six. Months are shifted for the other hemisphere only where the temperature curve moves 4 °C or more and the habitat lies 10° or more from the equator. A reading of the curves, not an observation of the plant.

Rain. CHELSA monthly precipitation, median year across the grid cells of the range. The rain that falls where the species is recorded; nothing about how the plant takes water.

Light. CHELSA shortwave radiation at each envelope cell, a daily-mean flux taken to a daily total and converted at 2.07 mol of PAR per MJ. The sky over the habitat, measured; what reaches a plant under a rock, a shrub or a shade cloth is not.

Temperature. NASA POWER daily minima and maxima over 44 years at a typical spot in the range, lapse-corrected +7 m to its elevation; CHELSA monthly means, median year across the grid cells of the range. The cold floor is the 1st-percentile night named in its sentence. Not a measured survival limit for any plant in a pot.

Humidity. CHELSA relative humidity, median year across the grid cells of the range.

Climate across the habitat

Habitat months, southern hemisphere

Habitat climate of Atriplex semibaccata through the yearWarmest months January and February, mean daily high 30 °C; coldest month July, mean nightly low 5.3 °C; 386 mm of rain in the median year (the twelve monthly medians added). Medians across the range, from CHELSA; the extremes at the edge from NASA POWER. Habitat months, southern hemisphere.-10°0°10°20°30°40°50°frost42.5° 99th-percentile day, NASA POWER-2.8° lowest night in 44 years, NASA POWER°C · day and nightcold quarter0255075mm rainDLI 15–50RH 48–61%JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
day night rain medians and 10th–90th percentile across 908 habitat cells, CHELSA cold quarter: the three months around the coldest month's mean nightly low extremes over 44 years at a typical spot in the range, from NASA POWER, marked at the edge, in no month DLI, mol/m²/dayRH %each on its own scale
Figures by month
JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
Day °C30 / 25–3230 / 25–3226 / 23–2822 / 19–2418 / 16–1914 / 13–1613 / 12–1515 / 14–1718 / 16–2122 / 18–2525 / 21–2828 / 23–30
Night °C18 / 15–2018 / 15–2015 / 13–1712 / 10–149 / 8–116 / 6–85 / 5–76 / 5–88 / 7–1010 / 9–1314 / 11–1516 / 13–18
Rain mm22 / 16–5225 / 16–5026 / 17–4424 / 16–4336 / 26–4942 / 29–6040 / 30–5837 / 26–5834 / 25–5234 / 25–5733 / 25–6633 / 25–63
DLI50 / 45–5145 / 41–4637 / 31–3827 / 22–2918 / 15–2115 / 12–1716 / 13–1821 / 18–2430 / 26–3439 / 35–4146 / 41–4749 / 44–50
RH %48 / 46–5649 / 47–5751 / 48–5753 / 51–5858 / 55–6061 / 58–6360 / 57–6258 / 54–6055 / 52–5952 / 49–5750 / 48–5749 / 46–57
How this section is made
Each figure is the median across the 908 grid cells on land that hold in-range records (1268 records in those cells; 3 more cells hold records but no land by the elevation layer, so those records sit at sea and the cells are left out), with the 10th–90th percentile span across those cells after the slash where it differs. A dash is a month one or more of those cells has no figure for in the grid (a variable CHELSA does not carry there), so no median is taken rather than one over fewer cells. Extremes and elevation were read at a typical spot in the range, cell 2490:6493 (-34.525, 144.675). Over 44 years there: absolute minimum -2.8 °C, 1st-percentile night 0.6 °C, 99th-percentile day 42.5 °C. Normals: CHELSA V2.1 1981–2010 climatology, 0.05° cells (each the mean of ~36 1 km pixels). Across the range: median and 10th–90th percentile of each month across the 908 distinct grid cells holding 1268 of the 1271 in-range records (3 further cells with records at sea, by the elevation layer, left out); extremes and elevation at the typical cell 2490:6493 (its coldest month's mean nightly low nearest the median across cells); its position is the cell centre. Extremes: NASA POWER (MERRA-2) daily 1981–2024, cell -34.50_144.375, lapse-corrected +7 m at 6.5 °C/km. Elevation: ETOPO 2022, 86 m (cell mean).

Natural habitat

Native range as published by WCVP; the marker is where the records are densest and decides nothing: the climate was read across the cells of the in-range records placed well enough to read one, not at the marker.
Openly licensed records inside the range, framed on where they fall.
NativeNew South Wales, Queensland, South Australia, Victoria, Western Australia · introduced: Spain, Algeria, Egypt, Libya, Morocco, Tunisia, Western Sahara, Canary Is., Madeira, Mauritania, Djibouti, Eritrea, Kenya, Botswana, Cape Provinces, Lesotho, Namibia, KwaZulu-Natal, Free State, Northern Provinces, St.Helena, Cyprus, Iraq, Palestine, Sinai, Saudi Arabia, Norfolk Is., Tasmania, Hawaii, Washington, Arizona, California, Nevada, Utah, New Mexico, Texas, District of Columbia, Mexico Northwest, Bolivia, Peru, Argentina Northeast, Argentina South, Argentina Northwest, Chile Central, Chile North · regions are the level-3 units of the World Geographical Scheme for Recording Plant Distributions, as Kew's World Checklist records ranges, some under historical names such as Yugoslavia or Czechoslovakia (how).
Map marker-37.759, 144.738 · in the densest population, 440 records (34% of those in range)
Kew's description“perennial or subshrub” · “desert or dry shrubland” · quoted from WCVP, RBG Kew (CC BY 4.0); not derived here
Evidence usedThe map marker rests on all 1291 georeferenced records inside the native range; the climate across the range on the 1268 of them in the land cells it reads, of 1271 placed to within 10 km; the map shows only the 1250 openly licensed ones, which alone would put the marker in the same place. 481 records outside the WCVP native range not used. 20 in-range records are placed to worse than 10 km, or with no stated accuracy (admitted only as a person's observation to three decimals), and stay on the map but off the climate.
How this section is made
The map marker: the openly licensed record nearest the middle of the densest 1° population of the 1291 in-range records; it decides nothing. Records outside the native range, living specimens and records marked introduced are not used; which records count.

Photographs

Atriplex semibaccata, photograph 1did not loadAtriplex semibaccata, photograph 2did not loadAtriplex semibaccata, photograph 3did not loadAtriplex semibaccata, photograph 4did not loadAtriplex semibaccata, photograph 5did not loadAtriplex semibaccata, photograph 6did not load

Photographs: (c) Marc Whitaker, some rights reserved (CC BY); (c) Eric Alan Isaacson, some rights reserved (CC BY) (5).

Similar habitat climate The 6 nearest by mean daily high, mean nightly low and rain, month by month. How.

Calostemma purpureum Calostemma purpureum Garland lily Photo: CC BY, Rosalie LawrenceMyriophyllum papillosum Myriophyllum papillosum Haloragaceae Photo: CC BY, Richard HartlandAcacia hakeoides Acacia hakeoides Hakea Wattle Photo: CC0, author not statedBrachyscome paludicola Brachyscome paludicola Asteraceae Photo: CC BY, Jared ShormaCalotis scabiosifolia Calotis scabiosifolia Rough Burr-daisy Photo: CC BY, Lukas ClewsCentipeda cunninghamii Centipeda cunninghamii Common Sneezeweed Photo: CC BY, Will Cornwell

Other Atriplex 28 in the reference

Atriplex amnicola Atriplex amnicola Swamp saltbush Photo: CC BY, mel lettermanAtriplex barclayana Atriplex barclayana Barclay saltbush Photo: CC BY, Enrique Martínez NúñezAtriplex canescens Atriplex canescens Four-wing saltbush Photo: CC BY, Rachel AllinghamAtriplex cinerea Atriplex cinerea Coast saltbush Photo: CC BY, Peter CrowcroftAtriplex confertifolia Atriplex confertifolia Shadscale Photo: CC BY, Anders HastingsAtriplex glabriuscula Atriplex glabriuscula Babington's orache Photo: CC0, author not statedAtriplex halimus Atriplex halimus Shrubby orache Photo: CC BY, Vasco Henrique Oliveira FonsecaAtriplex hortensis Atriplex hortensis Garden orache Photo: CC BY, Valerii GlazunovAtriplex hymenelytra Atriplex hymenelytra Desert-holly Photo: CC0, author not statedAtriplex laciniata Atriplex laciniata Frosted orache Photo: CC0, author not statedAtriplex lampa Atriplex lampa Amaranthaceae Photo: CC0, author not statedAtriplex lentiformis Atriplex lentiformis Big saltbush Photo: CC BY, Ashley N all 29 ›

Names & registers

Also known as Atriplex denticulata; Atriplex flagellaris; Atriplex neurivalvis; Atriplex semibaccata var. appendiculata; Atriplex semibaccata var. biformis and 8 more. (GBIF Backbone)

GBIFPOWOIPNIWFOWikidataWikipediaiNaturalist

The record

Family
Amaranthaceae
Described by
R.Br.
Native to
New South Wales, Queensland, South Australia +2
Wild records
1291 in range · 1250 open

Every figure here is derived from public data by a stated rule and names its source; nothing about this species is written for its page by a person or by AI, apart from the marked, credited quotations. How →

Where this page came from built 2026-10-21
GBIF species record gbif.species answeredasked 2026-10-21
GBIF synonyms gbif.synonyms answeredasked 2026-10-21
GBIF common names gbif.vernacular answeredasked 2026-10-21names fetched 2026-10-21
WCVP native range wcvp.distribution answeredas of 2026-06-04
GBIF occurrence records gbif.occurrences answeredas of 2026-10-21GBIF occurrence download https://doi.org/10.15468/dl.hbdw64, of 2026-10-21; 18 records within 1 km of a botanic garden, herbarium or zoo left out (14 at a botanic garden or arboretum, 4 at a zoo; Wikidata's list)
Habitat climate climate answeredasked 2026-10-21
Daily extremes (NASA POWER) climate.extremes answeredasked 2026-10-21NASA POWER (MERRA-2) daily 1981–2024, cell -34.50_144.375, lapse-corrected +7 m at 6.5 °C/km
Wikidata wikidata answeredasked 2026-10-21
Wikipedia wikipedia answeredasked 2026-10-21
iNaturalist photographs, wild inat.photos.wild answeredasked 2026-10-22from iNaturalist's open data of 2026-09-27: research-grade observations with an open-licence photograph, the 24 whose photographs iNaturalist received last (the open data holds no votes); filled 2026-10-22
iNaturalist photographs, cultivated inat.photos.cultivated not asked
GBIF media gbif.media answeredasked 2026-10-21
OpenAlex papers openalex not askednot yet asked for this reference; a later fill takes the papers from OpenAlex's snapshot

Every source is recorded as having answered, reported nothing, refused, failed, not been asked, or answered twice where one answer is taken (“not taken: two items answered”), and, for a source asked when this page was built, when: the figures are as the source held them that day; a source read from a file (Kew's World Checklist, a GBIF download) says "as of" the file's day instead; a row carried from an earlier build of the page names that build instead. Only “nothing to report” is ever shown as an absence. Records came from 81 datasets via GBIF.org; each carries its own licence.

Cultifolio

Opening your plants…