Halogeton glomeratus | |
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Scientific classification | |
Kingdom: | Plantae |
Clade: | Tracheophytes |
Clade: | Angiosperms |
Clade: | Eudicots |
Order: | Caryophyllales |
Family: | Amaranthaceae |
Genus: | Halogeton |
Species: | H. glomeratus |
Binomial name | |
Halogeton glomeratus | |
Halogeton glomeratus is a species of flowering plant in the family Amaranthaceae known by the common names saltlover, Aral barilla, and halogeton. It is native to Russia, Central Asia and China, but the plant is probably better known in the western United States, where it is an introduced species and a notorious noxious weed. [1] This annual herb is a hardy halophyte, thriving in soils far too saline to support many other plants. It also grows in alkali soils such as those on alkali flats and disturbed, barren habitat. It can be found in sagebrush and shadscale habitat, and it grows well in areas with cold winters. [2]
This plant produces a usually erect stem with several curving branches up to about 25 centimeters (10 in) tall. It has a taproot reaching up to half a meter deep in the soil and many lateral roots. The branches are lined with narrow, fleshy, blue-green leaves each up to about 2 centimeters long tipped with stiff bristles. The inflorescences are located all along the stem branches next to the leaves. Each inflorescence is a small cluster of tiny bisexual and female-only flowers accompanied by waxy bracts. The winged, membranous flowers surround the developing fruit, which is all that remains on the plant when it is ripe, the leaves and flower parts having fallen away. The fruit is a pale cylindrical utricle. The plant produces large amounts of seeds, which are dispersed by many vehicles, including human activity, animals (including ants), water flow, wind, and by being carried on the dry plant when it breaks off at ground level and rolls away as a tumbleweed. [2] The seeds have the ability to germinate within one hour after being exposed to water. [2]
This herb is a pest on rangelands in the western United States. It has a high oxalate content, with up to 30% of the plant's dry weight made up of oxalate crystals, making it toxic to livestock that graze on it. [1] It is especially toxic to sheep, which can be fatally poisoned by as little as twelve ounces (350 g) of the plant. [1] Halogeton was first recognized as a danger to sheep in the 1940s after a rancher lost a herd of 160 sheep to poisoning. [3] The oxalate causes acute hypocalcemia in the sheep, causing them to stagger, spasm, and finally die. [2] Ingestion of a fatal dose of the plant can cause death in a sheep in under 12 hours. [4] Ranchers often provide calcium-supplemented feed to sheep grazing on halogeton-infested land. [1] [2] Sheep are also able to adapt to halogeton in their diets over time, becoming sick from it less easily, and since it is hardly palatable they tend to avoid it in the first place when possible. [1] [2]
Halogeton is also destructive to the land of the American west because its excretion of mineral salts makes it harder for other plants to grow where it occurs. [1] The growth of the plant is controlled by introducing certain nonnative plants, such as immigrant kochia ( Kochia prostrata ) and crested wheatgrass ( Agropyron cristatum ), which compete successfully with halogeton. [1] Grazing practices are changed to assure that land is not denuded, since land which is disturbed by overgrazing is susceptible to halogeton invasion. [1]
Halogeton is a plant genus of the family Amaranthaceae. The genus name, Halogeton, derives from the Greek words for "salt" and for "neighbor."
Rumex acetosella, commonly known as red sorrel, sheep's sorrel, field sorrel and sour weed, is a species of flowering plant in the buckwheat family Polygonaceae. Native to Eurasia and the British Isles, the plant and its subspecies are common perennial weeds. It has green arrowhead-shaped leaves and red-tinted deeply ridged stems, and it sprouts from an aggressive and spreading rhizome. The flowers emerge from a tall, upright stem. Female flowers are maroon in color.
Lactuca canadensis is a species of wild lettuce known by the common names Canada lettuce, Canada wild lettuce, and tall lettuce. Its true native range is not clear, but it is considered to be a native of the eastern and central parts of North America. It naturalized in the western part of the continent as well as in Eurasia.
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Arida arizonica,, is an annual plant in the, known by the common names arid tansyaster, desert tansyaster, and Silver Lake daisy. It is native to the very arid deserts of northern Mexico and the southwestern United States, and usually looks straggly and not very attractive. But in years with very heavy rainfall, it fills out and becomes rounded and bush like.
Pyrrocoma lanceolata is a species of flowering plant in the family Asteraceae known by the common name lanceleaf goldenweed. It is native to western North America from central Canada to northeastern California to Colorado, where it grows in many types of habitat, including disturbed places and areas with wet, alkali soils. It is a widespread and variable plant. It is a perennial herb growing one or more stems up to about half a meter long. The stems are decumbent or upright, reddish, usually somewhat hairy to quite woolly, and glandular toward the ends of the stems. The largest leaves are at the base of the plant, each measuring up to 30 centimeters in maximum length. They are generally lance-shaped with sawtoothed edges. The inflorescence bears several, up to 50, flower heads lined with reddish to green phyllaries. Each contains yellow disc florets and ray florets. The fruit is an achene up to a centimeter long including its pappus.
Pyrrocoma uniflora is a species of flowering plant in the family Asteraceae known by the common name plantain goldenweed. It is native to western North America from central Canada to California to Colorado, where it grows in several types of habitat, including forest and meadows with alkali soils, such as those near hot springs. It is a perennial herb growing up to 40 centimeters tall, the stems reddish and usually with a thin to thick coating of woolly fibers. The lance-shaped, toothed leaves are usually woolly, the largest near the base of the plant reaching up to 12 centimeters in length. The inflorescence is a single flower head or a cluster of a few heads, each lined with woolly phyllaries. The head contains yellow disc and ray florets. The fruit is an achene which may be over a centimeter long including its long pappus.
Tetradymia glabrata is a species of flowering plant in the aster family known by the common name littleleaf horsebrush. It is native to the western United States, especially the Great Basin and Mojave Desert. Its habitat includes sagebrush, woodlands, and scrub. It is an erect, bushy shrub growing to a maximum height over one meter, its stems coated unevenly in white woolly fibers with many bare strips. The narrow, pointed leaves are usually no more than a centimeter long and most occur in clusters along the branches. The inflorescence bears up to seven flower heads which are each enveloped in four woolly phyllaries. Each head contains four yellow cream flowers each around a centimeter long. The fruit is a hairy, ribbed achene with a pappus of bristles.
Thelypodium stenopetalum is a rare species of flowering plant in the mustard family known by the common names slenderpetal thelypody, slender-petaled thelypodium and slender-petaled mustard. It is endemic to the San Bernardino Mountains of southern California, where it is known from only three or four extant occurrences in moist mountain meadows near Big Bear Lake. Its remaining habitat is considered seriously threatened and the plant is a federally listed endangered species in the United States.
Xanthium spinosum is a species of flowering plant in the aster family known by many common names, including spiny cocklebur, prickly burweed and Bathurst burr. This species is part of the genus Xanthium that encompasses 25 different species of flowering plants of the daisy family, Asteraceae, and sunflower tribe.
Lysimachia asperulifolia is a rare species of flowering plant in the Primulaceae known by the common name rough-leaved loosestrife and roughleaf yellow loosestrife. It is endemic to the Atlantic coastal plain in North Carolina and northern South Carolina in the United States, where there are 64 known populations. It is a federally listed endangered species of the United States.
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