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Montana Field Guide

Montana Field Guides

Five-horn Smotherweed - Bassia hyssopifolia
Other Names:  Five-hook Bassia, Thorn Orache

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Non-native Species

Global Rank: GNR
State Rank: SNA
C-value: 1


Agency Status
USFWS:
USFS:
BLM:


 

External Links

 
General Description
Annual herbs with long-hairy foliage. Stems erect, branched, to 80 cm. Leaves sessile, linear-lanceolate, to 2 cm long with entire margins. Inflorescence terminal and lateral, bracteate spikes or flowers clustered in leaf axils. Flowers mostly perfect; calyx ca. 2 mm across, the 5 segments united below, each with a hooked spine up to 2 mm long; stamens 5. Fruit flattened, enclosed by calyx; seed horizontal (Lesica et al. 2012. Manual of Montana Vascular Plants. BRIT Press. Fort Worth, TX).

Diagnostic Characteristics
Bassia hyssopifolia is sometimes confused with Russian thistles in our area (Salsola collina and S. tragus). Species of Russian thistle are more profusely branched and spiny than Bassia (Fischer et al. 1979).

Species Range
Montana Range Range Descriptions

Non-native
 


Range Comments
In MT occuring in only about seven counties across much of state; native to Eurasia, naturalized across most of western temperate N. Amer. (Lesica et al. 2012. Manual of Montana Vascular Plants. BRIT Press. Fort Worth, TX; Welsh 2003 in Fl. N. Amer. Vol. 4).

Observations in Montana Natural Heritage Program Database
Number of Observations: 20

(Click on the following maps and charts to see full sized version) Map Help and Descriptions
Relative Density

Recency

 

(Observations spanning multiple months or years are excluded from time charts)



Habitat
Saline wetlands, roadsides, disturbed fields; plains, valleys (Lesica et al. 2012. Manual of Montana Vascular Plants. BRIT Press. Fort Worth, TX).

Management


References
  • Literature Cited AboveLegend:   View Online Publication
    • Lesica, P., M.T. Lavin, and P.F. Stickney. 2012. Manual of Montana Vascular Plants. Fort Worth, TX: BRIT Press. viii + 771 p.
  • Additional ReferencesLegend:   View Online Publication
    Do you know of a citation we're missing?
    • Lesica, P., M.T. Lavin, and P.F. Stickney. 2022. Manual of Montana Vascular Plants, Second Edition. Fort Worth, TX: BRIT Press. viii + 779 p.
  • Web Search Engines for Articles on "Five-horn Smotherweed"
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Citation for data on this website:
Five-horn Smotherweed — Bassia hyssopifolia.  Montana Field Guide.  .  Retrieved on , from