122 AMARANTHACEAE (AMARANTH FAMILY) 



TUMBLEWEED 



Amardnthus groeclzans, L. 

 (Amardnthus dlbus, L.) 



Other English names: White Pigweed, Tumbling Pigweed. 



Native. Annual. Propagates by seeds. 



Time of bloom : June to September. 



Seed-time: July to October. 



Range: Throughout North America except the far North; most 



common in the plains regions of the West. 

 Habitat : Cultivated ground ; waste places. 



A low, broadly spreading plant, eight to twenty inches high, with 

 thick, succulent, very pale green, almost white stem, diffusely 

 branching from the base, and hav- 

 ing a shallow, pinkish white root. 

 Leaves smooth, pale green, a half- 

 inch to two inches long, spatulate, 

 with rounded apex, the midvein 

 extended as a minute bristle; 

 petioles slender, paler than the 

 blades. Flowers in small axillary 

 clusters, green, with three membra- 

 nous sepals and as many stamens, 

 the three subtending bracts much 

 longer, awl-like, sharp, rigid, the 

 lateral ones smaller or sometimes 

 wanting; seed with wrinkled, pa- 

 pery utricle longer than the sepals. 

 When the plants mature the leaves 

 fall away, the hardened stems 

 bend inward, the stalk is uprooted 

 FIG. 75. Tumbleweed (Ama- or breaks off at the surface of the 

 ranthus gratizans). x 1. ground, and the weed rolls away 



to scatter the seeds wherever the wind wills. (Fig. 75.) 



Means of control 



Destroy by hoe-cutting while young ; tillage of cultivated crops 

 should be long continued, in order to capture late-ripening plants. 



