Plants mainly 3-10 dm; branchlets slender, striately angled, not spiny. Petiole 1-2 mm. Pistillate flowers borne in panicles 5-20 cm. Fruiting bracteoles subreniform, mainly 3-4(-4.5) × (3.5-)5-6 mm. Seeds 1.4-1.9 mm wide.

Flowering spring-winter. Saline flats; 1200 m; Ariz.

The leaves of Atriplex torreyi var. griffithsii are thick, with rounded edges, the staminate glomerules are beadlike, 2-3.5 mm thick in interrupted spikes borne in terminal, leafy-based panicles.