Netseed Lambsquarter-Goosefoot Family

Baconweed, chou grass, fat-hen, frost-blite, mealweed, pitseed goosefoot, white goosefoot, white pigweed, wild spinach.

Chenopodium berlanderi

Characterisitcs. This European native is now one of the more common “large”weeds throughout the United States. It can tolerate almost any type of condition and as a consequence it is quite commonly found in agriculture, landscaping and even barren dry areas. It is very competitive due to its rapid growth and corresponding high use of water. In California and some of the other western state netseed lambsquarter serves as a host for the beet leafhopper which is the vector of the curly top virus in sugar beets. It is edible and the younger (more tender) leaves have been used in salads and greens. As might be expected it is a good livestock forage plant. Germination

occurs from early spring through autumn, with plants maturing as early as mid-summer.

Identifying Characteristics. This is an extremely variable annual. It typically grows upright (up to 6 feet), although some plants grow wider. The stems are many branched and often striped with pink or purple. Plants often form large clusters which could be a single plant that is highly branched at the base, or multiple plants from individually germinated seeds.

The light green leaves are alternate with upper leaves margins wavy to somewhat lobed while the lower leaves are narrow often with entire margins.

The flowers occur in dense terminal and axillary spikes. Flowers are green and lack petals

This plant is sometimes called Pigweed but needs to be differentiated from Common Pigweed (Amaranthus retroflexus).

Chenopodium has approximately 60 species, one-third found in America. The native American lamb’s quarter, C. berlandieri, is indistinguishable from C. album apart from subtleties of the seed coat. The former is more prevalent in the central and western states, and the latter in eastern.

Lamb's quarter is native to Eurasia, but now naturalized throughout North America. Lambs quarter variants range from coast to coast, from Canada to Mexico, and are found throughout Europe.

Goosefoot is an erect, annual herb varying much in size from 30 cm to 2 meters in height. The stems are erect, smooth, longitudinally grooved, and often red, purple or light-green striped. Chenopodium comes from the Latin for "goose foot", which describes the shape of the leaves. The leaves are 2.5-8 cm long, stalked, smooth, and covered with tiny white mealy particles/scales, particularly on the lower surface. Occasionally the plant may have purple- to wine-colored leaf bases. The entire plant is covered with varying amounts of a waxy substance giving the plant a light green appearance.

The flowers are inconspicuous, green, without petals, and are found in dense clusters at the tips of branches and at the top of the stem. Goosefoot flowers throughout the summer and predominantly in the autumn, producing abundant amounts of pollen. A full-grown plant can give off as many as 20 000 pollen grains. The flowers are hermaphrodite (have both male and female organs) and are pollinated by wind. The tiny seeds are disc shaped with a notch. They are glossy black, brown or brownish green, and 1.2-1.6 mm in diameter, and ripen from August to October. Lamb’s quarter is an important aeroallergen in mid-Europe, where 24 to 27% of hay fever sufferers are skin test positive to it. (Horak 1979 ref.7686 3)

Goosefoot is found in open habitats, rubbish tips and on cultivated fields, and especially on rich soils, old manure heaps, in overgrazed lands, brush burns and logged openings, desert grasslands, and juniper-pine forests. It does not grow in the shade. Chenopodium species are tolerant of salty soils; thus, they play a role in the coastal flora around the Mediterranean, the Red and Caspian Seas, the central steppes of Asia, the edge of the Sahara, the pampas of Argentina, the South African Karoo, the Mulga of Australia and the alkaline plains of the southwest USA.

It was very much a prehistoric and medieval food and medicinal plant. It is related to the spinach family and is vitamin-rich. The leaves and seeds of all members of this genus are more or less edible. They can be cooked and eaten as a spinach substitute or dried. The seed can be dried and ground into a meal, eaten raw, baked into a bread as used by American Indians, or added as a supplement to grain flour. The ground seeds can also be used as medication such as an antidote against worms.

However, many of the species in this genus contain saponins, though usually in quantities too small to do any harm. The plants also contain some oxalic acid. In nitrogen-rich soils, the plants can also concentrate hydrogen cyanide.

Characteristics Important in Control. Rapid growth and heavy water intake create problems in planted areas. Lambsquarters also serves as an alternate host of the beet leafhopper. In turf mowing tend to reduce problems.