Plants in Israel: Wooly Bassia

Bassia eriophora, Londesia eriantha, Bassia eriantha, Echinopsilon eriophorus, Kochia eriophora, Kochia latifolia, Wooly Bassia,

Hebrew: בסיה צמירה, Arabic: قضقاض السداة

Scientific name:   Bassia eriophora (Schrad.) Asch.
Synonym name:   Bassia eriantha (Fisch. & C.A. Mey.) Pavlov, Echinopsilon eriophorus (Schrad.) Moq., Kochia eriophora Schrad., Kochia latifolia Fresen., Londesia eriantha Fisch. & C.A.Mey.
Common name:   Wooly Bassia
Hebrew name:   בסיה צמירה
Arabic name:   قضقاض السداة
Family:   Chenopodiaceae, Goosefoot Family, סלקיים


Life form:   Annual
Succulence:   Leaf succulent
Stems:   5-25cm, erect to ascending, branching from base; stem and branches sparsely covered with soft hairs
Leaves:   Alternate, entire, linear, margin smooth; Leaves small, flat, subsessile or very shortly petioled, linear-oblong to lanceolate-ovate or elliptic, ± fleshy, entire, 5-20 x 2-4 mm, abruptly narrowed towards base, acute to obtuse, pubescent especially beneath and on the margins
Inflorescence:   Hermaphrodite, solitary or in cymes, arranged in a panicle
Flowers:   Flowering glomerules like cotton balls, hidden in thick white fleece, densely spicate; perianth segments 5, stamens 5, stigmas 2 or 3
Fruits / pods:   Fruiting perianth adherent to the fruit, rounded-oval, 1 mm long, like cotton-balls, with or without short protuberances at the back; seed c. 1 mm across, discoid, brown
Flowering Period:   March, April, May, June
Habitat:   Desert, Thermophilous plants
Distribution:   Semi-steppe shrublands, Deserts and extreme deserts
Chorotype:   Saharo-Arabian – Sudanian
Summer shedding:   Ephemeral


Derivation of the botanical name:

Bassia, named for Ferdinando Bassi (1710-1774), an Italian botanist and Prefect of the Bologna Botanical Garden (ref. genus Bassia).

eriophora, Greek erion, wool; phoreo, to bear; wool-bearing.
eriantha , Greek erion, wool; woolly-flowered.
Echinopsilon, Greek echinos, “a hedgehog or sea-urchin,”
Kochia, named for Wilhelm Daniel Josef Koch (1771 – 1849), a German doctor and professor of botany.
latifolia, having wide leaves.
Londesia , named for Friedrich Wilhelm Londes (1780 – 1807), a German botanist, author of Verzeichnis der um Göttingen wildwachsenden Pflanzen (1805).
The Hebrew word: בסיה, Bassia transliteration from Bassia.

  • The standard author abbreviation Schrad. is used to indicate Heinrich Adolph Schrader (1767 – 1836),a German botanist and mycologist.
  • The standard author abbreviation Asch. is used to indicate Paul Friedrich August Ascherson (1834 – 1913), a German botanist.
  • The standard author abbreviation Fisch. is used to indicate Friedrich Ernst Ludwig von Fischer (1782 – 1854), a Russian botanist, born in Germany.
  • The standard author abbreviation C.A.Mey. is used to indicate Carl Anton von Meyer (1795 – 1855), a Russian botanist and explorer.
  • The standard author abbreviation Pavlov is used to indicate Nikolai Vaslievi (1893 – 1971),a Soviet botanist.
  • The standard author abbreviation Moq. is used to indicate Christian Horace Bénédict Alfred Moquin-Tandon (1804 – 1863), a French naturalist and doctor.
  • The standard author abbreviation Fresen is used to indicate Johann Baptist Georg Wolfgang Fresenius (1808 – 1866), a German physician and botanist, known for his work in the field of phycology.