disturbed

Showing 13–24 of 94 results

  • Astragalus purshii / woollypod milkvetch

    • low growing, silvery, compound leaves; no tendrils
    • magenta (or white) "pea-like" flowers with darker keel petal
    • "congested" inflorescence
    • found in very dry areas, not in shade

  • Barbarea vulgaris / yellow rocket

    • showy yellow brassica with relatively large flowers
    • leaves deeply lobed with larger terminal lobe, smaller toward top of stems
    • common on roadsides and waste places in spring
    • siliques about an inch long and curving upward, with beaks and pedicels

  • Bassia scoparia / burningbush

    • large, annual herb (forb)
    • leaves long-ish and narrow
    • inflorescence a highly branched spike with teeny green/yellow flowers
    • may form huge, invasive colonies
    • whole plant turns red in fall
    • a tumbleweed
    • especially in disturbed areas and wastelands in the Valley

  • Beteroa incana / hoary alyssum

    • dense clusters of teeny white flowers
    • 4 petals, each with a notch
    • fruit is a short, fat-ish seed pod (silicle)
    • found in pastures and all manner of disturbed habitats
    • toxic to horses

  • Blitum nuttallianum / Nuttall’s povertyweed

    • ugly little creeping plant from a central stem
    • arrow-shaped leaves with two prominent lobes, especially on lower leaves
    • teeny clusters of teeny greenish flowers; no petals; in most leaf axils
    • widespread, but usually exposed and weed-like

  • Bromus inermis / smooth brome

    • clump forming grass but clonally spreading
    • erect, leafy
    • in winter, leaves curl up (like ribbon)
    • florescence is a nodding panicle, standing well above leaves
    • spikelets bronze/purple at maturity; anthers yellow

  • Bromus tectorum / cheatgrass

    • short bunchgrass, 2 to 30 in at floweirng
    • panicle with all florets to one side; long awns
    • early season growth, flowering, seed drop
    • florets green, turning purple as seeds mature
    • highly invasive!

  • Capsella bursa-pastoris / shepherd’s purse

    • small crucifer with terminal clusters of teeny white flowers
    • rosette of small, maybe toothed, leaves
    • very distinctive, notched, triangular fruits - like shepherd's "purses"
    • found pretty much anywhere that has/had bare soil

  • Cardamine hirsute / hairy bittercress

    • small brassica/crucifer with compound leaves
    • teeny white, 4 petal flowers with 4 stamens in racemic clumps
    • a widespread weed, including gardens and lawns

  • Carduus nutans / musk thistle

    • quite large, very purple flower heads
    • spiny everything... leaves, stems, bracts
    • biennial - large rosette of nasty leaves in first year
    • dandelion-like fruit that flies away like the down of a thistle
    • disturbed lands... pastures, wastelands, roadsides, construction sites

  • Ceanothus velutinus / snowbrush

    • waist-high, exposed evergreen shrub
    • aromatic in hot weather or when leaves are crushed
    • shiny (sticky) green leaves, ca. 3"; 3 prominent veins
    • 4" clusters of teeny white/cream flowers
    • in disturbed areas, particularly burned areas

  • Cerastium arvense / field chickweed

    • Erect or trailing stems, if you can see them amongst the competition
    • Clusters of 1 to many white flowers with 5 deeply cleft petals
    • Petals much longer than the green sepals
    • Opposite, linear, sessile leaves - not very long
    • Cylindrical seed capsules with 10 teeth at top

Showing 13–24 of 94 results