Taxonomy
Family: Chenopodiaceae
Monospecific genus
Habitat
Sandy, disturbed soil.
Associates
Distribution
Manitoba to IN, AR, and TX, west to UT and NM.
Morphology
Densely branched, annual tumbleweed. Leaves hairy, soon deciduous, lanceolate, coarsely and irregularly toothed, up to 8 cm near the base, progressively reduced upward. Flowers minute, green, perfect or merely pistillate, in spikes 2-6 cm, sessile; sepals 5, calyx 3-4 cm wide, eventually forming a membranous wing below the lobes; ovary flattened, globose; styles filiform. Fruit plano-convex, horizontal, purple or black with a free pericarp.
Notes
Flowers June to October
Wetland Indicator: Facultative Upland
Forms red tumbleweeds in the autumn.
References
Gleason, Henry A.
and A. Cronquist. 1991. Manual of Vascular Plants of Northeastern United States
and Adjacent Canada. Second Ed.
The New York Botanical Garden. Bronx, NY
Swink, F. and G.
Wilhelm. 1994. Plants of the Chicago Region.
Indiana Academy of Science. The Morton Arboretum. Lisle, Illinois.
Michael Hough © 2010 |