The genus Kochia and Bassia with which it has been combined, of Chenopodiaceae tribe Camphorosmeae, were at one time considered to include plants native to Eurasia, Australia, and North America, and included species of both C₃ and C₄ photosynthetic types. This aggregate has been reduced in size by removal of a large group of C₃ Australian genera and species. Because of their intercontinental disjunction, the presence of root sprouting, and the results of recent phylogenetic studies, it appears that the two North American species Kochia americana and K. californica, of C₃ photosynthetic type, should be removed as well, and we designate Neokochia as a new genus for them. In agreement with a study by other authors, comparison of pubescence characters and ploidy levels within K. americana did not give support recognition of the segregate K. vestita.