Plant · P-353

Mediterranean Saltbush

Atriplex halimus

Mediterranean Saltbush is an evergreen shrub built for punishing ground - it tolerates saline and very alkaline soil that kills most other plants, and it is even used to reclaim salted land by drawing salt out of the soil through its own tissue. It doubles as forage and a windbreak: sheep and goats browse it as a drought reserve that keeps a herd going through the worst of a dry year, and cutting it back for that forage is the same job as trimming it into a stock-height hedge. The one thing it cannot handle is wet feet - it needs sharp drainage and dies in winter-wet, rich soil, so it wants the highest, driest ground available rather than the richest.