Kochia

Bassia scoparia

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Alternative Name(s): Kochia scoparia

Family: Chenopodiaceae.

Form: Herb

Origin: Native of Europe and Asia.

Flowers/Seedhead: Inconspicuous, 2.3–3 mm wide, green, in groups of 2 to 6 in leaf-like bracts, amongst tufts of hairs longer than the flowers. Flowers summer.

Description: Erect annual herb to 1.8 m high. Leaves lanceolate, 2–12 cm long, 0.5–12 mm wide with 1–5 conspicuous veins; margins entire, fringed with hairs. Fruit star-shaped containing a single seed. Seeds oval, 1–2 mm long, brown or black.

Distinguishing features: Distinguished by simple to much-branched stems that are often shortly hairy but may be hairless, often red with age; leaves alternate, narrow-lanceolate with upper surface hairless, lower surface usually with dense covering of appressed hairs; flowers on short dense spikes in axils of upper branches or at ends of branches; base of flower surrounded by 5-lobed calyx with horizontal wings that persist around globeshaped fruit.

Dispersal: Spread by seed, particularly by tumbling dead plants.