Russian thistle is a common name that can refer to:
The Salsoloideae are a subfamily of the Amaranthaceae, formerly in family Chenopodiaceae.
Thistle is the common name of a group of flowering plants characterised by leaves with sharp prickles on the margins, mostly in the family Asteraceae. Prickles can also occur all over the plant – on the stem and on the flat parts of the leaves. These prickles are an adaptation that protects the plant from being eaten by herbivores. Typically, an involucre with a clasping shape similar to a cup or urn subtends each of a thistle's flowerheads.
A tumbleweed is a structural part of the above-ground anatomy of a number of species of plants. It is a diaspore that once it is mature and dry, detaches from its root or stem and rolls due to the force of the wind. In most such species, the tumbleweed is in effect the entire plant apart from the root system, but in other plants, a hollow fruit or inflorescence might detach instead. Xerophyte tumbleweed species occur most commonly in steppe and arid ecosystems, where frequent wind and the open environment permit rolling without prohibitive obstruction.
Shrub-steppe is a type of low-rainfall natural grassland. While arid, shrub-steppes have sufficient moisture to support a cover of perennial grasses or shrubs, a feature which distinguishes them from deserts.
Salsola soda, more commonly known in English as opposite-leaved saltwort, oppositeleaf Russian thistle, or barilla plant, is a small, annual, succulent shrub that is native to the Mediterranean Basin. It is a halophyte that typically grows in coastal regions and can be irrigated with salt water.
Kali turgidum, commonly known as prickly saltwort or prickly glasswort, is an annual plant that grows in salty sandy coastal soils.
Salsola is a genus of the subfamily Salsoloideae in the family Amaranthaceae. The genus sensu stricto is distributed in central and southwestern Asia, North Africa, and the Mediterranean. A common name of various members of this genus and related genera is saltwort, for their salt tolerance. The genus name Salsola is from the Latin salsus, meaning "salty".
A tumbleweed is a kind of plant habit or structure.
Echinops exaltatus, the Russian globe thistle or tall globethistle, is European species of globe thistle in the sunflower family. It is native to central and eastern Europe from Germany and Italy east into Russia. The species has escaped cultivation and become established in the wild in scattered locations in eastern Canada and the northern United States.
Kali tragus is a species of flowering plant in the family Amaranthaceae. It is known by various common names such as prickly Russian thistle, windwitch, or common saltwort. It is widely known simply as tumbleweed because in many regions of the United States, it is the most common and most conspicuous plant species that produces tumbleweeds. Informally, it also is known as "'salsola", which was its generic name until 2007.
Oenothera californica, known by the common name California evening primrose, is a species of flowering plant in the evening primrose family.
Kali paulsenii is a species of flowering plant in the amaranth family known by the common name barbwire Russian thistle. It is native to Eurasia and it is present in the American southwest as an introduced species and sometimes a weed in sandy, disturbed habitat types. It is an annual herb forming a brambly clump of intricately branched, prostrate to erect stems growing up to a meter long. The reddish stems are lined with yellow-green, thready, fleshy, or needlelike, spine-tipped leaves a few millimeters to three centimeters long. The inflorescence is an interrupted series of flowers, with one flower per leaf axil. The flower is surrounded by a disclike array of wide, winged sepals which are whitish at the tips and pinkish at the bases.
The Russian thistle stem miner moth is a moth of the family Coleophoridae. It is native to North Africa, the Middle East and Asia, including Pakistan, Egypt and Turkey. It is an introduced species in the United States in California, Nevada, Utah, Idaho, Arizona and Hawaii. It has been introduced intentionally as a biological control of invasive Salsola species.
Salsola kali was the botanical name for a species of flowering plants in the amaranth family, whose subspecies have been recently reclassified as two separate species in the genus Kali:
Kali is a genus of plants in the subfamily Salsoloideae in the family Amaranthaceae. Common names of various members of this genus include tumbleweed for its wind-blown seed dispersal habit, and Tartar thistle and Russian thistle for its origins.
Bassia hyssopifolia is a species of flowering plant in the family Amaranthaceae, known by the common names five-horn smotherweed, five-hook bassia, and thorn orache. It is native to parts of Asia and Eastern Europe, and it is known on other continents as an introduced species, including North and South America and Australia. It is a weed, invasive at times.
Aeoloplides tenuipennis, known generally as the narrow-winged saltbush grasshopper or narrow-winged bush grasshopper, is a species of spur-throated grasshopper in the family Acrididae. It is commonly found in eastern California, Arizona and southwestern New Mexico north through Utah and southern Nevada to southern Idaho.