Species: Chenopodium ficifolium
English Name: Small Goosefoot
Chinese Name: 小藜
Family: Chenopodiaceae
Description:
Herbs annual, 20-50 cm tall. Stem erect, green striate, ribbed. Leaf blade ovate-oblong, 2.5-5 × 1-3.5 cm, margin usually 3-lobed; central lobe margins almost parallel, subentire to sinuate-dentate, apex obtuse or subacute, mucronate; lateral lobes positioned in proximal 1/3 or near base of leaf blade, margin entire or shallowly dentate. Flowers bisexual, several per glomerule, these arranged in spreading, terminal panicles on upper branches. Perianth subglobose, 5-parted; segments valvate in bud, remaining closed at anthesis, broadly ovate, abaxially longitudinally keeled, densely farinose. Stamens 5, exserted at anthesis. Stigmas 2, filiform. Utricle included in perianth, falling together with it from plant; pericarp adnate to seed. Seed horizontal, black, sublustrous, ca. 1 mm in diam., distinctly hexagonally pitted, rim margin subobtuse; embryo annular. Fl. Apr-May.
Common weed of waste places, garbage dumps, roadsides, etc. Anhui, Chongqing, Fujian, Gansu, Guangdong, Guangxi, Guizhou, Hainan, Hebei, Heilongjiang, Henan, Hubei, Hunan, Jiangsu, Jiangxi, Jilin, Liaoning, Nei Mongol, Ningxia, Qinghai, Shaanxi, Shandong, Shanxi, Sichuan, Taiwan, Xinjiang, Yunnan, Zhejiang [Asia, Europe; naturalized in North America and some other regions of the world].
Photos used under a Creative Commons license
References:
– Wu ZY, Raven PH, Hong DY (eds) (2003). Flora of China, Volume 5: Ulmaceae through Basellaceae. Science Press, Beijing, and Missouri Bot Garden Press, St. Louis