The deciduous leaves are oblanceolate , 0.4 to 4.3 cm long, 2 to 13 mm wide, and 

 somewhat fleshy (fig. 38). 



The small, greenish unisexual flowers usually occur on separate plants, but in 

 some populations as many as 5 percent of the shrubs are monoecious. The staminate 

 flowers are clustered in glomerules in the axils of leaves, whereas the pistillate 

 flowers are mostly in dense terminal spikes. 



The fruits are enclosed by pairs of conspicuous, rounded or obovate, flat-winged, 

 sessile bracts, 5 to 12 mm wide, and often tinged with red (fig. 7) (McMinn 1939). 



The flowering period of spiny hopsage is from April to June. On a site in central 

 Utah, south of Ephraim, at an elevation of 1,830 meters (6,000 feet), seeds matured 

 from June 15 to July 17 over a 5-year period. In most places, the seeds tend to be 

 mature and disseminating before July 15. Shortly after seed maturity, the leaves ordi- 

 narily fall, but there is wide variation in this characteristic. An unusual form in 

 Daggett County, northeastern Utah, has some leaves remaining on the shrub throughout 

 the following season. Cleaned seeds (seeds removed from the utricles) of this shrub 

 average 166,765 per pound (368/g) (Plummer and others 1968). 



Hybridisation: ' Hybrids between fourwing saltbush and spiny hopsage have been 

 obtained by treating pistillate flowers of fourwing saltbush with pollen. from spiny 

 hopsage (Drobnick and Plummer 1966) . Spiny hopsage has a chromosome number of 2n = 36 

 (C. L. Pope and E. D. McArthur, data on file at the Shrub Sciences Laboratory, Prove, 

 Utah) . 



Distribution and Habitat: Spiny hopsage is found over a wide range of soils on 

 plains and foothills in California northward to eastern Oregon and Washington, and east 

 to New Mexico, Colorado, and Wyoming. Soils are typically high in calcium and strongly 

 basic but, in some areas, they are essentially neutral. On extensive tracts, spiny 

 hopsage occurs with big sagebrush. It is somewhat fire tolerant, often surviving fires 

 that kill sagebrush. 



Use: Spiny hopsage is a valuable forage plant in areas where it is abundant, 

 particularly in the spring when it is in full leaf. This is the time when livestock 

 and game seek it out. This species was given a browse rating by Sampson and Jespersen 

 (1963) of good to fair for sheep, goats, and deer; fair to poor for cattle; and poor 

 to useless for horses. 



Kochia americana subsp. vestita (gray molly summer cypress) 



Gray molly summer cypress is a small, woody-based subshrub to 5 dm tall (fig. 39). 

 Its numerous, annual, erect branches and leaves are covered with long, silky hairs. 

 The linear, fleshy, more or less terete leaves are 5 to 30 mm long. Hairy perfect or 

 pistillate flowers are borne singly or in small clusters in the axils of leaves along 

 almost the full length of the branches. At anthesis, the hooded calyx lobes are about 

 1.5 mm long and closely cover the ovary. At maturity, the fruit is largely concealed 

 in the persistent calyx, which develops conspicuous, horizontal, fanlike papery wings 

 to 3 mm long. This species blooms from June to August. It produces about 257,200 

 cleaned seeds per pound (566/g) . 



Hybridization: Natural hybrids between Kochia americana and other native species 

 are unknown. Perhaps improvement of this species by hybridization with introduced 

 species such as Kochia prostrata will prove feasible. This is yet to be tested. The 

 chromosome number of gray molly is unknown. 



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