Kansas Wildflowers and Grasses

BROOM KOCHIA

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Kochia scoparia (L. ) Schrad.

Konza Prairie, Riley County, Kansas

Annual

Height: 12-80 inches

Family: Amaranthaceae - Amaranth Family

Flowering Period: July, August, September,October

Also Called:

Belvedere summer-cypress, fire-weed.

Stems:

Green or yellowish-green, often with reddish stripes, turning red with maturity, erect or spreading, much branched from base, glabrous or pilose to villous.

Leaves:

Cauline, alternate, proximal sometimes opposite, simple; petiole 0 to 1/5 inch; blade elliptic to linear-lanceolate or linear, .8 to 2.8+ inches long, 1/25 to 1/2 inch wide, conspicuously 3-veined, sometimes 5-veined, base tapered, margins entire, fringed with hairs, tip obtuse to acute, without spine-like bristle, surfaces pilose to villous or nearly glabrous.

Inflorescences:

Spikes, terminal; bracts linear, leaf-like, without spine-like bristle at tip.

Flowers:

Inconspicuous, mostly bisexual, sometimes pistillate, paired in leaf-like bracts, petals absent; tepals 5, connate ca. 1/2 their lengths, lobes each eventually developing rounded, rough horizontal wing; stamens usually 5; style 1; stigmas 2(-3).

Fruits:

Utricles, somewhat depressed globose, enclosed at maturity by persistent calyx, 1/25 to 1/15 inch; seeds brown to black, flattened-obovoid.

Habitat:

Cultivated ground, roadsides, ditches, disturbed sites, waste places

Distribution:

Occurs statewide

Origin:

Introduced

Forage Value:

Provides good livestock and wildlife forage when young. Though readily consumed by livestock, kochia can accumulate high nitrate concentrations under certain conditions, so care should be exercised if grazed or fed in hay.

Uses:

Songbirds and upland game birds eat the seeds.

Comments:

Kochia for W. D. J. Koch, German naturalist, and scoparia, broom, alluding to the branches.

Broom kochia