|
|
Origin:
Introduced
Life Cycle:
Biennial
General Desc:
First-year rosettes are blue-green and are covered with wooly white hairs. Second-year plants produce more leaves with a flowering stem; mature plants break off and become tumbleweeds, easily spreading as many as 100,000 seeds each.
Identification notes: Biennial, square stems, up to 2 feet tall; stems and leaves densely hairy; rosette leaves grayish-green; flowers yellow to whitish and 2- lipped, flowering stems highly branched; sepals white, wooly with hairs; fruits 4 smooth nutlets with dark veins.
Height:
1 to 2 feet
Habitat Description: Sagebrush communities, disturbed sites, fields, rangelands, roadsides and some agricultural crops.
Plant Communities:
Desert Scrub, Semidesert Grasslands, Disturbed Areas
Elevation: 4000 - 7000 feet
Color:
Yellow, whitish
Shape:
Regular in round clusters
Tubular:
N
Flowering Period:
Jun - Oct
Description:
Flower stem 2 to 3 feet tall, branch 2 to 3 feet wide resembling a candelabra; whorls of flowers; sepals white-wooly, 1/2 inch long; petals 3/4 inch long; upper lip arched; lower lip shaped like a pouch.
Leaf Color:
Blue-green, grayish-green
Leaf Type:
Other
Leaf Shape:
Other
Leaf Margin:
Smooth
Leaf Attachment:
Basal and opposite
Leaves Clasp:
N
Hairs:
Leaves and stems
Spines:
N
Leaf Description:
Fine, wooly hairs cover stems, new leaves and leaf undersides; prominent veins on mature leaves; grayish-green, stemmed rosette leaves 4 to 12 inches long; opposite stem leaves; smaller than basal leaves; leaves become smaller toward top of stem.
Fruit Type: Nutlet
Fruit Notes: 4, smooth with dark veins.
|
|
