122 AMARANTHACEAE (AMARANTH FAMILY) 
TUMBLEWEED ' 
Amardnthus grecizans, 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 
4 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 
Fic. 75. — Tumbleweed (Ama- or breaks off at the surface of the 
ranthus grecizans). X ¢. ground, and the weed rolls away 
to scatter the seeds wherever the wind wills. (Fig. 75.) 
Means of control 5 
Destroy by hoe-cutting while young; tillage of cultivated crops 
should be long continued, in order to capture late-ripening plants. 
