Krascheninnikovia lanata
| Krascheninnikovia lanata | |
|---|---|
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| Scientific classification | |
| Kingdom: | Plantae |
| (unranked): | Angiosperms |
| (unranked): | Eudicots |
| (unranked): | Core eudicots |
| Order: | Caryophyllales |
| Family: | Amaranthaceae |
| Subfamily: | Chenopodioideae |
| Genus: | Krascheninnikovia |
| Species: | K. lanata |
| Binomial name | |
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Krascheninnikovia lanata (Pursh) A.Meeuse & Smit |
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Krascheninnikovia lanata is a species of flowering plant in the amaranth family (Amaranthaceae), known by the common name winterfat. It is native to much of western North America: from central Western Canada; through the Western United States; to northern Mexico.
The genus was named for Stepan Krasheninnikov — the early 18th-century Russian botanist and explorer of Siberia and Kamchatka.
The plant grows in a great variety of habitats at 100–2,700 metres (330–8,860 ft) in elevation — from grassland plains and xeric scrublands to rain shadow faces of montane locations.
It is a halophyte that thrives in salty soils such as those on alkali flats, including those of the Great Basin, Central Valley, Great Plains, and Mojave Desert.
Krascheninnikovia lanata is a small shrub sending erect stem branches to heights between .5–1 metre (1.6–3.3 ft). It produces flat lance-shaped leaves up to 3 centimeters long. The stems and cool gray foliage are covered in woolly white hairs which age to a reddish color.
The tops of the stem branches are occupied by plentiful spike inflorescences from March to June. The shrub is generally monoecious, with each upright inflorescence holding mostly staminate flowers with a few pistillate flowers clustered near the bottom. The staminate flowers have large, woolly leaflike bracts.
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Wikipedia