Salsola tragus

Russian thistle, tumbleweed, Tumbleweed

Family: Chenopodiaceae · Type: annual · Not Native

Conservation status: Cal-IPC Yes

Russian thistle is a naturalized annual found in California in disturbed places at elevations below 2,800 meters. Flowering from July to October, this plant produces small, inconspicuous flowers with whitish-green sepals. Growing up to 1.5 meters tall with branched, wiry stems often marked with red stripes, it develops a distinctive tumbling habit when dead, breaking off at the base and rolling across landscapes. Its leaves range from 8 to 52 millimeters long, becoming leathery with age, with sharp-pointed or spiny tips that widen at the base. When mature, the plant produces distinctive fruits with five wings, typically 2.9 to 8.4 millimeters in diameter, with veined and minutely toothed margins.

Habitat: Common. Disturbed places

Bloom period: Jul-Oct

Elevation: < 2800 m

Bioregions: CA

California counties: San Joaquin, Los Angeles, San Bernardino, Merced, Fresno, Riverside, Kern, Plumas, Inyo, Siskiyou, Alameda, Tulare, San Benito, San Diego, Santa Barbara, Ventura, Orange, San Luis Obispo, Mono, Contra Costa, Solano, Kings, Lake, Modoc, Madera, Santa Clara, Humboldt, Calaveras, Yolo, Butte, El Dorado, Alpine, Stanislaus, Amador, Santa Cruz, Colusa, Imperial, Lassen, Marin, Napa, San Mateo, Shasta, Sonoma, Sutter, Tehama, Monterey, Nevada, Sacramento, San Francisco, Yuba, Glenn, Del Norte

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