SEARCH AND WILDFLOWER HOME PAGE YELLOW FLOWERS CONTACT US
|
Anyone who has pushed through a scratching maze of Greasewood (Sarcobatus vermiculatus) knows its meshed branches and flesh-tearing spines. Even Meriwether Lewis tangled with Greasewood, and, in fact, he was the first to collect the plant for science, in Montana July 20, 1806 along the Marias River. Lewis wrote of it:
"There is another growth that begins now to make its
appearance in the bottom lands and is becoming extremely |
|
Sarcobatus vermiculatus (Greasewood) Semi-desert.
Shrublands, openings. Spring, summer. Sarcobatus vermiculatus is a tall, spreading shrub found in abundance throughout the lower elevations of the Four Corners area. Its leaves are a rich green and somewhat succulent (the Greek, "sarco"); older stems are dark, younger are quite light; spines abound. Male and female flowers are separate but found on each bush (thus it is called "monoecious"). The plant is found in extensive stands on hot, dry areas on dense soils. The Greek "batos" means "a bramble" and "vermiculatus" is Latin for "worm eaten".
|
|
|
Sarcobatus vermiculatus (Greasewood) Semi-desert.
Shrublands, openings. Spring, summer. You can see why Meriwether Lewis found the thorns so "extremely troublesome". |
|
|
Sarcobatus vermiculatus (Greasewood) Semi-desert.
Shrublands, openings. Spring, summer. Male flowers are in cone-like formations. Female flowers are fewer, near the base of male flowers. The drawing below is from Engler and Prantl's 1893 "Die NaturlichenPflanzenfamilien...."
|
|
|
Sarcobatus vermiculatus (Greasewood) Semi-desert.
Shrublands, openings. Spring, summer. Seed pods in the first photograph are still fleshy and somewhat green. In the lower left corner of the first photograph, brown decaying male pollen chains are still evident. When fully ripened, as in the second photograph, seed pods could easily be confused with the seed pods of Atriplex canescens. |
Range map © John Kartesz,
County Color Key
|
Range map for Sarcobatus vermiculatus |
troublesome; it
is a shrub which rises to the hight of from two to four feet, much
branched, the bark of the trunk somewhat rough hard and of light grey
colour; the wood is firm and stif, the branches beset with a great
number of long, sharp, strong, woody looking thorns; the leaf is about
¾ or an inch long, and an inch wide, it is obtuse, absolutely entire,
veinless fleshy and gibbose; has no perceptible taste or smell, and no
anamal appears to eat it. By way of designating when I mention it
hereafter I shall call it the fleshey leafed thorn."
Species present in state and native
Species present in state and exotic
Species not present in state
Species present and not rare
Species present and rare
Species extirpated (historic)
Species extinct
Species noxious
Species exotic and present
Eradicated
Questionable presence