page_title: Kali tragus
section_title: Description
hierarchical_section_title: Kali tragus / Description
caption_attribution_description: English: Kali tragus, misnamed Russian thistle, the main species of tumbleweed in the US Midwest.
context_page_description: Kali tragus is a species of flowering plant in the family Amaranthaceae. It is known by various common names such as prickly Russian thistle, windwitch, or common saltwort. It is widely known simply as tumbleweed because in many regions of the United States, it is the most common and most conspicuous species of tumbleweed. Informally, it also is known as "salsola", which was its generic name until fairly recently.
context_section_description: Kali tragus is an annual forb. In habit, the young plant is erect, but it grows into a rounded clump of branched, tangled stems, each one up to about a metre long. Depending on the plant's genetics and condition, the leaves and stems may be green, red, or striped, and they may be hairless or pubescent. The leaves are tipped with spines that in most varieties are so sharp that the plants are best handled with gloves and other suitably protective clothing, though some genetic variants have only a hair at the tip. On the young plant, leaves may be more than 5 cm long, succulent and more or less cylindrical; these juvenile leaves are deciduous and drop off as the plant matures. The leaves of the mature plant are persistent, leathery, broader and shorter than the young leaves (seldom more than 1 cm in length), rigid and spine-tipped. They remain on the stem till the plant dies at the end of the season. In the axil of the mature leaf, there are two leaf-like bracts with a flower between them. The flower lacks petals, but is surrounded by a disk of wide, winged sepals, whitish to pink in color.
caption: Kali tragus, the Russian thistle
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