roadsides

Showing 1–12 of 56 results

  • Agropyron cristatum / crested wheatgrass

    • cool season grass growing in dense tufts
    • easily recognized by planar spike
    • spikelets overlap and are angled with respect to the stem
    • common

  • Arctium minus / lesser burdock

    • purple to pink to lavender thistle-like flowers with hooked bracts
    • nasty hooked seed heads
    • very large, heart-shaped leaves
    • found in a wide variety of disturbed areas

  • 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

  • Astragalus miser / timber milkvetch

    • compound leaves with small, egg-shaped leaflets
    • teeny, pea-like flowers - bicolored but overall blue/purple
    • keel tip is purple and pointed
    • small, hairy seed pods
    • grassland, meadows, and other open communities

  • 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

  • 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!

  • 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

  • Carex spectabilis / showy sedge

    • roadsides or in wet and seasonally flooded meadows
    • showy inflorescences... yellow (stamens) above white (stigmas) on a purple background
    • grass/iris-like leaves up to 2 feet tall

Showing 1–12 of 56 results