Salsola damascena

Russian thistle

Family: Chenopodiaceae · Type: shrub · Not Native

Russian thistle is a naturalized shrub found in the southeastern Temblor Range in clay soil flats at elevations around 1,000 meters. Flowering from June to October, this plant produces small, inconspicuous flowers with white to tan sepals and narrow wing-like margins. Growing 60 to 100 centimeters tall with extensively branched stems that spread in ascending to erect patterns, it has a distinctive shrubby form with puberulent (slightly hairy) surfaces. Its leaves vary from oblong at the base to ovate toward the top, measuring 3 to 9 millimeters long with obtuse to acute tips. The fruit develops distinctive wings approximately 7 to 11 millimeters in diameter, with multiple opaque wings featuring numerous fine veins.

Habitat: Clay soils, flats

Bloom period: Jun-Oct

Elevation: +- 1000 m.

Bioregions: se SCoRI (Temblor Range)

Data from The California Species Project — 14,000+ California species with verified data from CNPS, CDFW, USFWS, Jepson eFlora, Cal-IPC, and more.