Salsola tragus L.

• Authority

  Gleason, Henry A. & Cronquist, Arthur J. 1991. Manual of vascular plants of northeastern United States and adjacent Canada. lxxv + 910 pp.

• Family

  Amaranthaceae

• Scientific Name

  Salsola tragus L.

• Description

  Species Description - Glabrous or hispidulous, freely and diffusely branched, becoming rigid, forming a loose ball 2–10 dm that eventually breaks off at the ground and becomes a tumbleweed; lvs narrowly linear, 1–3 (the lower to 6) cm, reduced upwards and passing into the divergent, spinescent, ± setulose-serrulate, basally scarious-margined bracts; bracteoles 2.5–3.5 mm, also pungent; sep at anthesis soft, muticous, the midvein obscure; fruiting cal 3–10 mm wide, the lower fls often with the sep merely carinate, the others with the sep developing a prominently veined wing on the back; embryo closely coiled in several layers; 2n=36. Native to Eurasia, now widespread as a weed, abundant in the drier parts of w. N. Amer., less commonly in our range. (S. kali var. tenuifolia; S. iberica; S. pestifer; S. ruthenica)

• Common Names

  Russian thistle