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 Flower head Max Licher @http://swbiodiversity.org, Usage Rights: Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike (CC BY-SA) |  Leaves Max Licher @http://swbiodiversity.org, Usage Rights: Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike (CC BY-SA) |  Flowers Max Licher @http://swbiodiversity.org, Usage Rights: Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike (CC BY-SA) | | | |
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Origin:
Native
Life Cycle:
Annual
General Desc:
A tall bushy annual, stout, angular, sparsely to widely branched, lower branches often 16 inches long or more. Leaves toothed with very smooth leaf undersides; male flowers in leafless, terminal spikes; female flowers in axillary clusters.
Identification notes: Male flowers in conspicuous nearly leafless terminal elongated flower heads, female flowers in axillary clusters. Leaves narrow at each end, white below, green above. Flower bracts are not round, margins irregularly toothed, not in 2 forms.
Height:
6 inches to 3-1/4 feet
Habitat Description: Found on alkaline or saline soils, often along roadsides and in other disturbed ground.
Plant Communities:
Desert Scrub, Interior Chaparral, Semidesert Grasslands, Pinyon Juniper Woodland, Montane Conifer Forest, Disturbed Areas
Elevation: 3000 - 7000 feet
Color:
Orangish-pink & yellow
Shape:
Inconspicuous in elongated clusters
Tubular:
N
Flowering Period:
Jun - Sep
Description:
Male flowers in dense compact clusters along leafless, 2-3/4 inches to 11-3/4 inches long, terminal and slightly branched flower heads. Female flowers in axillary clusters.
Leaf Color:
Green
Leaf Type:
Simple
Leaf Shape:
Narrow
Leaf Margin:
Toothed
Leaf Attachment:
Alternate
Leaves Clasp:
N
Hairs:
No
Spines:
N
Leaf Description:
Erect to ascending, stems, sparsely to widely branched, covered with small bran-like particles, sometimes red; leaves on short stems, blade pale below, green, smooth above, leaves narrow at both ends, 1 to 2-1/4 inches, irregularly toothed margins.
Fruit Notes: Fruits compressed, oval to somewhat wedged-shaped, borne on a short stalk, rounded at apex. Multiple fruits basally united. Fruits have an additional little bract on the short flower stalk, between the bract and the sepals.
Seed Notes: Pale brown, <1/8 inch.
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