ruderal

Showing 1–12 of 38 results

  • Artemisia absinthium / wormwood

    • deeply lobed leaves; grey-green (hairy); aromatic (like sage)
    • stems to 4' tall; up to 20 per plant
    • small clusters of teeny yellow flowers in drooping heads
    • disturbed areas and may be weedy

  • 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

  • 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

  • Chenopodium album / lamb’s quarters

    • green, nobbly inflorescence - many nob-like flowers
    • leaves grey-green, more or less triangular
    • leaves may feel cool to the touch
    • widespread weed, especially in disturbed habitats

  • Cirsium arvense / Canada thistle

    • purple or lavender clearly-thistle flower heads
    • multiple small flower heads per stem
    • deeply lobed, spiny leaves, but stems not spiny
    • clonal and perennial
    • in clumps or along roads, sometimes quite large/long

  • Cirsium vulgare / bull thistle

    • very nasty spines all over, including stems
    • purple flower head over pear/egg-shaped narrow, spiny bracts
    • fruits are thistle-downy
    • disturbed areas, but also forest gaps, stream sides and seeps

  • Convulvulus arvensis / field bindweed

    • prostrate and twining vine with white "morning-glory" flowers
    • may be so dense as to choke out other plants
    • roadsides, agricultural fields, waste areas
    • "noxious" in Idaho

  • Erysimum cheiranthoides / wormseed wallflower

    • yellow, 4-petaled flower, less than 1/3 inch across
    • lance shaped or elliptical, sessile leaves varying little in size or shape
    • leaf margins entire or coarsely toothed
    • ribbed stems
    • ascending or erect siliques with short pedicels
    • disturbed and waste areas

  • Fragaria vesca / woodland strawberry

    • trifoliate, light green markedly toothed leaves
    • clusters of hairy, 5-petaled white flowers on a soft-hairy stem
    • plants spread by stolons
    • fruit (if any) red with bumps where the seeds are
    • spring/early summer bloom
    • widespread

Showing 1–12 of 38 results