Top of the page

Fat hen - White goosefoot

Login to access our suggested solutions.

Scientific Name
Chenopodium album var. album
Pest Alias
White goosefoot
Kingdom:
Plantae
Phylum:
Tracheophyta
Subphylum:
Angiospermae
Class:
Magnoliopsida
Order:
Caryophyllales
Family:
Amaranthaceae
Subfamily:
Chenopodioideae
Tribe:
Chenopodieae
Genus:
Chenopodium
Species:
Chenopodium album var. album

Global distribution 1

Cosmopolitan.

Life expectancy 1

Annual.

Habitat 1

Weeds of cultivation and waste ground.

Description 2,3

Stems erect to sprawling, simple to much-branched, 1-30 dm, sparsely to densely farinose. Leaves nonaromatic; petiole 1-2.5 cm, shorter than blades or occasionally longer; blade ovate-lanceolate to rhombic-lanceolate or broadly oblong, 1-5.5(-12) × 0.5-3.8(-8) cm, base narrowly to broadly cuneate, margins sinuous-dentate to shallowly serrate or entire, apex acute to subobtuse, farinose abaxially. Inflorescences glomerules or occasionally 1-flowered peduncles in terminal and lateral compound spikes, 2-19 cm; glomerules subglobose, 3-4 mm diam.; bracts absent. Flowers: perianth segments 5, distinct nearly to base; lobes ovate, ca. 1 × 1.1 mm, apex obtuse, keeled, farinose, largely covering fruit at maturity; stamens 5; stigmas 2, 0.2-0.3 mm. Utricles depressed-ovoid; pericarp nonadherent, occasionally adherent, smooth to papillate. Seeds lenticular, margins round, 0.9-1.6 mm diam.; seed coat black, smooth, indistinctly granulate and/or radially grooved, or with faint reticulate-rugose ridges. 2n = 54.

Flowering/fruiting 2,3

Fruiting late summer-fall.

References

  1. © Bibliotheca Alexandrina, some rights reserved
  2. Flora of North America Vol. 4: 296 in eFloras.org, Missouri Botanical Garden. Accessed Nov 12, 2008.
  3. © Missouri Botanical Garden, 4344 Shaw Boulevard, St. Louis, MO, 63110 USA, some rights reserved

Fat hen - White goosefoot

Chenopodium album var. album
Scientific Name
Chenopodium album var. album
Pest Alias
White goosefoot
Kingdom:
Plantae
Phylum:
Tracheophyta
Subphylum:
Angiospermae
Class:
Magnoliopsida
Order:
Caryophyllales
Family:
Amaranthaceae
Subfamily:
Chenopodioideae
Tribe:
Chenopodieae
Genus:
Chenopodium
Species:
Chenopodium album var. album

Global distribution 1

Cosmopolitan.

Life expectancy 1

Annual.

Habitat 1

Weeds of cultivation and waste ground.

Description 2,3

Stems erect to sprawling, simple to much-branched, 1-30 dm, sparsely to densely farinose. Leaves nonaromatic; petiole 1-2.5 cm, shorter than blades or occasionally longer; blade ovate-lanceolate to rhombic-lanceolate or broadly oblong, 1-5.5(-12) × 0.5-3.8(-8) cm, base narrowly to broadly cuneate, margins sinuous-dentate to shallowly serrate or entire, apex acute to subobtuse, farinose abaxially. Inflorescences glomerules or occasionally 1-flowered peduncles in terminal and lateral compound spikes, 2-19 cm; glomerules subglobose, 3-4 mm diam.; bracts absent. Flowers: perianth segments 5, distinct nearly to base; lobes ovate, ca. 1 × 1.1 mm, apex obtuse, keeled, farinose, largely covering fruit at maturity; stamens 5; stigmas 2, 0.2-0.3 mm. Utricles depressed-ovoid; pericarp nonadherent, occasionally adherent, smooth to papillate. Seeds lenticular, margins round, 0.9-1.6 mm diam.; seed coat black, smooth, indistinctly granulate and/or radially grooved, or with faint reticulate-rugose ridges. 2n = 54.

Flowering/fruiting 2,3

Fruiting late summer-fall.

References

  1. © Bibliotheca Alexandrina, some rights reserved
  2. Flora of North America Vol. 4: 296 in eFloras.org, Missouri Botanical Garden. Accessed Nov 12, 2008.
  3. © Missouri Botanical Garden, 4344 Shaw Boulevard, St. Louis, MO, 63110 USA, some rights reserved