Broom kochia

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Broom kochia

Broom kochia

Broom kochia

Broom kochia

Broom kochia

Broom kochia

Broom kochia

Morphology

Stem

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.

Inflorescence

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

Flower

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).

Fruit

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

Ecology

Habitat

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

Distribution

Occurs statewide

Practical Information

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.

Additional Notes