the name for several species of annual desert plants that dry out after the seeds mature and form small balls, which break off from the root and are rolled by the wind (tumbleweed); in damp weather the seeds spill and germinate.
Two species are best known as rose of Jericho. Odontosper-mum pygmaeum (family Compositae) is distributed from the Sahara to Iran. The involucral bracts of the calathide head are hygroscopic and open when moistened. Anastatica hierochuntica (family Cruciferae) grows in Morocco and Southwest Asia. The inflorescence has hygroscopic branches. Miracle-working properties (for example, as an aid in childbirth) were attributed to the latter, which was imported to Russia from Palestine.