Chenopodium album is a fast-growing annual plant in the flowering plant family Amaranthaceae. Though cultivated in some regions, the plant is elsewhere considered a weed. Common names include lamb's quarters, melde, goosefoot, wild spinach and fat-hen, though several are also applied to other species of the genus Chenopodium, for which reason it is often distinguished as white goosefoot.
Description
Wild spinach
It tends to grow upright at first, reaching heights of 10–150 centimetres (4–59 in), rarely to 3 m; it then typically becomes recumbent after flowering (due to the weight of the foliage and seeds) unless supported by other plants. The leaves are alternate and varied in appearance. The first leaves, near the base of the plant, are toothed and roughly diamond-shaped, 3–7 cm long and 3–6 cm broad. The leaves on the upper part of the flowering stems are entire and lanceolate-rhomboid, 1–5 cm long and 0.4–2 cm broad; they are waxy-coated, unwettable and mealy in appearance, with a whitish coat on the underside. The small flowers are radially symmetrical and grow in small cymes on a dense branched inflorescence 10–40 cm long. Further, the flowers are bisexual and female, with five tepals which are mealy on outer surface, and shortly united at the base. There are five stamens.
Poisonous black nightshade looks similar to this species when young, but the leaves of C. album have a white mealy texture and its axils have a red streak.
Similar species
Poisonous black nightshade looks similar to this species when young, but the leaves of C. album have a white mealy texture and its axils have a red streak.
Taxonomy
Chenopodium album has a complex taxonomy and has been divided into numerous microspecies, subspecies and varieties, but it is difficult to differentiate between them. The following varieties are accepted by Plants of the World Online:
Chenopodium album var. album – temperate Eurasia and Indian subcontinent, North...
