eaten in winter after softening by rains. In case of need, good ensilage can be 

 made from the mature plants, which otherwise are unpalatable. Hay sometimes 

 is made of the young plants. The plant is a typical tumbleweed, breaking off at 

 the surface of the ground when mature and piling up along fences. One of the 

 Hopi Indian names signifies 'white man's plant.' " 



Various birds and small mammals eat the seeds while hoofed browsers feed 

 on the young plants. 



4. Nitrophila Wats. 



About 8 species in western United States, Mexico and temperate South 

 America. 



1. Nitrophila occidentalis (Moq.) Wats. Fig. 421. 



Low, perennial, rhizomatous, glabrous herb; stems numerous, tufted, to about 

 3 dm. long; leaves sessile, opposite, fleshy, linear to semiterete, pungent, 1-3 

 cm. long, reduced upward; flowers axillary, perfect, pink or white; perianth seg- 

 ments 5 to 7, imbricate, carinate; stamens 5, united at base into a thin yellowish 

 disk; style longer than the subglobose ovary; stigmas 2; achene beaked by the 

 persistent style, included within the connivent perianth segments, the pericarp 

 membranous. 



In moist or wettish saline or alkaline soils, in Ariz. (Pinal and Pima cos.), 

 Apr.-May; Ore. to Ariz., Calif, and n.w. Mex. 



5. Sarcobatus Nees 



A North American genus of 1 or 2 species. Known to be toxic to sheep. 

 1. Sarcobatus vermiculatus (Hook.) Torr. Black greasewood, chico. Fig. 421. 



Perennial shrub; stems 3-30 dm. tall, erect, much-branched; branches rigidly 

 stout, becoming grayish, the younger ones yellow-white, glabrous or pubescent 

 with short white branched hairs, the ultimate branchlets stout and spinose; leaves 

 linear to linear-filiform, 1-4 cm. long, entire, fleshy, glabrous or sparsely stellate- 

 pubescent, obtuse or acute at the apex, narrowed at the base, the lower leaves 

 of the branchlets opposite and often shorter than the others; staminate flowers 

 in terminal catkinlike spikes 7-30 mm. long; perianth lacking but each flower sub- 

 tended by a peltate stipitate bract, with 3 or less stamens per flower; scales rhombic- 

 orbicular, sometimes abruptly acuminate, sometimes tinged with red, glabrous or 

 pubescent; pistillate flowers sessile, solitary or 2 together in the axils of the leaves, 

 with a perianth, this margined by narrow borders which (in fruit) develop into 

 broad membranaceous horizontal wings 6-12 mm. wide, sometimes tinged with 

 red, the axis of the fertile inflorescence often prolonged and bearing 1 to 8 

 staminate flowers; perianth of the fertile flowers compressed, turbinate, confluent 

 with the ovary; stigmas 2, subulate, recurved; fruit coriaceous, winged at the 

 middle, the broad wing scarious, veined and crenulate, the lower part of the fruit 

 turbinate, the upper part conical, minutely stellate-pubescent (at least when 

 young), the body 4—5 mm. long and 2.5-3.5 mm. broad; seed erect, orbicular; 

 embryo spirally coiled; endosperm none. 



Flat ground, barren or alkaline soils, salt marshes, w. Tex., N.M. (generally 

 distributed) and Ariz. (Apache, Navajo and Coconino, s. to Pinal and Maricopa 

 COS.), May-July; w. N.D. to Alta. and Sask., s. to Tex., Colo., N.M., Ariz, and 

 Calif. 



6. Bassia All. Smother-weed 

 About 10 species that are native to the Old World. 



842 



