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 Flowers Liz Makings @http://swbiodiversity.org, Usage Rights: Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike (CC BY-SA) |  Leaf Sue Carnahan @http://swbiodiversity.org, Usage Rights: CC BY-NC (Attribution-Non-Commercial) |  Plant Sue Carnahan @http://swbiodiversity.org, Usage Rights: CC BY-NC (Attribution-Non-Commercial) | | | |
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Origin:
Introduced
Life Cycle:
Annual or perennial
General Desc:
Tall, branching shrub with red to green or purple stems. Glossy, dark green, hand-shaped leaves with deep lobes often grow to over 1 foot wide. Small cup-like yellowish-green male flowers grow below red feathery female flowers atop the same flower spike.
Identification notes: Shrub to 6 feet tall; not hairy; leaves large, simple, alternate, palmately lobed, 8 to 10 lobes, to 16 inches wide; flowers in elongated clusters of male and female flowers, female flowers above the male flowers in the same cluster, without petals.
Height:
To 6 feet tall
Habitat Description: Waste ground, riverbanks, sand and gravel bars (long, narrow deposits of sand or gravel especially at the mouth of a river), ravines, margins of cultivated fields, pastures, roadsides, along railways.
Plant Communities:
Riparian, Disturbed Areas
Elevation: Below 2300 feet
Color:
Yellowish-green, red
Shape:
Regular in elongated clusters
Tubular:
N
Flowering Period:
Jan - Dec
Description:
Flowers without petals grow in dense spikey clusters 8 to 18 inches tall at the stem tops. Male flowers grow below female flowers on the same spike. Male flowers are yellowish-green, each about 1/2 inch wide. Female flowers are bright red and feathery.
Leaf Color:
Dark green
Leaf Type:
Simple
Leaf Shape:
Palmate
Leaf Margin:
Toothed
Leaf Attachment:
Alternate
Leaves Clasp:
N
Hairs:
No
Spines:
N
Leaf Description:
The leaves are shiny, hairless, hand-shaped to star-shaped with long purplish stalks. Each leaf has 8 to 10 deeply cut lobes with jagged edges and prominent center veins. Leaves usually grow to about 1-1/3 feet wide but may reach up to 2-1/2 feet across.
Fruit Color: Reddish-brown, green, purplish
Fruit Type: Capsule
Fruit Notes: Fruit is dry, round, about the size of a golf-ball and densely covered in soft, flexible spines. The fruit has 3 sections (carpels) that separate when the seeds are mature. Each section contains 1 seed that is forcibly ejected when the carpel splits open.
Seed Notes: Seeds are smooth, shiny, oval, about 1/2 inch long, bean-like in shape and marked with smears of brown, black, white and gray (mottled). Each seed has a spongy projection (caruncle) on one end which helps it absorb water.
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