Kochia is a bushy annual from Eurasia that has become a widespread weed across North America, where whole plants can break off and roll as tumbleweeds. It is also grown in gardens as summer cypress or burning bush for its soft, rounded shape and red fall color.
Appearance
- Growth form
- An upright summer annual, 2–5 ft (60–150 cm) tall, with a deep and many branches, usually starting from the base.
- Leaves
- Narrow, gray-green leaves about 0.2–2.4 in (5–60 mm) long, alternate on the stem, with soft hairs and smooth edges. Stems often turn reddish late in the season.
- Flowers
- Tiny green flowers with no petals sit in spike-like clusters in the upper leaf axils.
- Flowering time
- Mid to late summer into fall; July through October in California.
- Fruit
- Each flower forms a small, light brown, wedge-shaped seed wrapped in the dried sepals.
Look-alikes
Where it lives
- Typical habitats
- roadsides
- crop fields
- ditch banks
- rangeland and pastures
- waste ground
- Range
- Native from Central Europe to Asia. Introduced to many parts of North America, where it grows in grasslands, prairies, and desert shrublands, and it's found in every western state except Alaska.
- Preferred conditions
- Thrives in disturbed, open ground and is especially common in newly planted fields.
- Flowering
Flowers Jul–Oct
Flowers Jul–Oct
Life cycle
- Seed dispersal
- In fall the dried plant snaps off at the base and tumbles in the wind, scattering seed.
Growing it
- Care
- Grown as an annual for its scarlet fall color. It self-seeds easily, especially in USDA zones 8–10, so garden plants can spread beyond where they were planted.
- Toxicity
- It can be decent livestock forage in moderate amounts, but it contains saponins, oxalates, and nitrates, and large amounts can poison cattle and other livestock.
Name and classification
- About the name
- Long known as Kochia scoparia, which is why it's still called "kochia." DNA studies moved Kochia into Bassia in 2011.
Conservation
- IUCN Red List
- NENot EvaluatedNot yet assessed
- Status
- Kochia is listed as a in several states. Washington, for example, ranks it Class B (since 1988) and puts it on its quarantine list, which bans selling or moving the plants and seeds.
- Threats
- Farmers know it as a tough weed: it competes with crops for light, water, and nutrients, and it develops herbicide resistance unusually fast. Some North American populations resist four different kinds of herbicide.
Culture and stories
- Culture and stories
- Other American names include mock-cypress, Mexican firebrush, and Mexican fireweed.
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