Tidestromia lanuginosa
| Tidestromia lanuginosa | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Conservation status | |
| Scientific classification | |
| Kingdom: | Plantae |
| (unranked): | Angiosperms |
| (unranked): | Eudicots |
| (unranked): | Core eudicots |
| Order: | Caryophyllales |
| Family: | Amaranthaceae |
| Genus: | Tidestromia |
| Species: | T. lanuginosa |
| Binomial name | |
| Tidestromia lanuginosa (Nutt.) Standl. | |
Tidestromia lanuginosa is a species of flowering plant in the amaranth family known by the common name woolly tidestromia. It is native to the southwestern United States and northern to central Mexico, where it grows in many types of habitat, including desert canyons and woodlands, riparian zones, desert and coastal scrub, beaches, and disturbed habitat such as roadsides. It is an annual herb producing a sprawling red, yellow, or greenish stem up to 50 centimeters long, or occasionally longer, to form clumps or patches on the ground. The leaves are quite variable in shape, being rounded to lance-shaped and sometimes asymmetrical. They are gray-green in color due to a thin to dense layer of hairs. Flowers occur in the leaf axils in clusters of a few, or solitary. The flower lacks petals but has tiny sepals around a ring of five stamens.