[2] The species of Extriplex are annuals or perennial herbs up to 1 m high, growing erect or spreading to decumbent.

The inflorescences stand axillary or form dense or interrupted spikes or panicles of male and/or female flowers at the tips of the branches.

Female flowers are sitting within 2 opposite bracteoles, without perianth, consisting just of an ovary with 2 filiform, exserted stigmas.

Their shape can be ovate, nearly round, or deltate with entire margins and acute to acuminate apices.

Extriplex joaquinana grows in inland alkali sink scrub or in alkaline grasslands.

[2] The genus Extriplex has been first described in 2010 by Elizabeth H. Zacharias (In: A Molecular Phylogeny of North American Atripliceae (Chenopodiaceae), with Implications for Floral and Photosynthetic Pathway Evolution.