Atriplex Species, Four-Wing Saltbush, Salt Sage, Shadscale, Wing-Scale

Evergray shrub, 5ft, gray leaves, native to dry areas of the western U.S. , very drought tolerant after a few good waterings.
...Read More /> The whole plant is edible: seeds can be ground into meal, young shoots used as greens, burned leaf ashes used as baking powder. Useful as gray screen, alkali tolerant, ground cover or specimen, very good bird plant. Cage the plant until the foliage reaches 3-4ft if you have deer or rabbits.

Atriplex is from arid environments and has a C4 photosynthetic pathway which is generally a more efficient way for the plant to conserve water, will defoliate under extreme drought, salts accumulated in leaves allows them to extract water from the soil other plants cannot.They need to be under some form of water stress, either drought, salt, or salt spray. The Atriplex species tolerate and remove the excess salts by bladders in leaves which act as salt sinks and keep the salt from the plant cells. When old leaves are shed or eaten the salt is removed from the plant.