Slender Russian Thistle
Salsola collina
Found in disturbed areas. Weakley, Flora of the Southeastern United States (2025), Northern Tier edition What its natural habitat tells you
Not native to West Virginia. How scores work Is it native here?
Profile 18%
No photograph yet. Looking for an old drawing…
At a glance
Not yet recorded · Height · Spread · Light · Soil · Life cycle · Leaves · Bloom
This plant is missing most of its facts, so Quercus is looking them up in old botany books.
County records are not available.
Natural habitats
Places it grows wild. Not a planting requirement. Each habitat page lists the plants and wildlife also found there.
Roadsides, fields and disturbed ground
Ground opened by people: roadsides, old fields, pastures, fencerows and lots.
Who uses this plant?
6CaterpillarsGenus host records with ranges including WV
Genus host records with ranges including WV · Salsola
- Agrotis ipsilonIpsilon Dart, Black Cutworm, Greasy Cutworm
- Anarta trifoliiThe Nutmeg, Clover Cutworm
- Euxoa detersaRubbed Dart, Sandhill Cutworm
- Hyles lineataWhite-Lined Sphinx
- Spilosoma virginicaVirginian Tiger Moth, Yellow Woolybear Moth, Yellow Bear
- Uresiphita reversalisGenista Caterpillar, Genista Cbroom Moth
—BeesSoutheastern regional records
—Specialist beesPollen specialists
1BirdsRecorded eating Salsola in West Virginia
Diet records by plant genus, from studies across North America. Not a record from this state. Birds whose range includes West Virginia, most records first.
- Snow Bunting1 diet record
Direct food only. Caterpillars on host plants also feed nesting birds. NC Native Plant Society: butterfly gardening
Birds that eat Salsola 1
Diet records by plant genus, from studies across North America. Not a record from this state. Avian Diet Database (Hurlbert Lab), CC0 1.0.
- Snow BuntingPlectrophenax nivalis
Plant details
- Family
- Amaranthaceae
Safety has not been reviewed for this plant; check toxicity and thorns before planting.
Conservation status
| West Virginia rank | SNA |
|---|---|
| Global rank | Not available |
| WV status | Not verified |
| Federal status | Not verified |
Native alternatives
Find natives for your gardenSources
- NatureServe Explorer
- Weakley, Flora of the Southeastern United States (2025), Northern Tier edition
- West Virginia occurrence source
- Shropshire & Tallamy 2025, Lepidoptera of North America north of Mexico, ZooKeys 1261 (ODbL)
- Noori, Seltmann & Orr 2026, A curated and integrated dataset for exploring global bee-plant interactions (GloBI), Zenodo, CC BY 4.0
- Smith, Bachelder, Russell, Morales, Mosher & Seltmann 2024, Bee-Specialization-Modeling v0.6.1 (specialist host table compiled from J. Fowler's pollen specialist bee lists), Zenodo, CC BY 4.0
- Hurlbert, Olsen, Sawyer & Winner 2021, Avian Diet Database, Scientific Data 8: 260 (CC0)
- Narango, Tallamy & Shropshire 2020, Few keystone plant genera support the majority of Lepidoptera species, Nature Communications