Single Record
Participant Info
- Species
- Bassia hyssopifolia [Kochia hyssopifolia] [Suaeda hysspifolia]
- Family
- Amaranthaceae
- CommonName
- ironweed, smotherweed, five-hook
- Presence
- Yes
- Status
- exotic
- EarliestDate
- 1936
- LatestDate
- 2022
- Ecosystem
- basin, shrubland
- Geobotanical
- UBasin
- Counties
- Alamosa, Rio Grande, Saguache
- Passes
- WildlifePreserves
- Russell Lakes
- Other Localities
- Comments
- There are only three Watershed vouchers of Bassia hyssopifolia, all from the Upper Basin, two from around the town of Alamosa (1936), and one from 9 miles N of Moffat (1954). Recent photorecords from the Russell Lakes SWA, the Great Sand Dunes, and the Blanca Wetlands indicate that the plant is more common than this herbarium count suggests. These photorecords would add Saguache to counties indicated in Ackerfield (2022) and BONAP (2022). The species is easily mistaken for the very common Bassia scoparia, and its salient distinguishing feature, the hooked spines on the calyx lobes, develops late. The exotic is distributed through all states of the USA west of the Great Plains, and follows the Rio Grande drainage to the Big Bend county of Texas. See Annotated Page
- Annotation
- Yes