Kansas Wildflowers and Grasses - Berlandier's goosefoot

BERLANDIER'S GOOSEFOOT

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Chenopodium berlandieri Moq.

McPherson County, Kansas

Annual

Height: 4-44 inches

Family: Amaranthaceae - Amaranth Family

Flowering Period: July, August, September,October

Also Called:

Pit-seed goosefoot.

Stems:

Ascending to erect, simple or much-branched from base, covered with a mealy powder.

Leaves:

Cauline, alternate: petiole .5 to 3.5 inches; blade rhombic to ovate, triangular, or lanceolate, 1/2 to 6 inches long, 1/5 to 3.3 inches wide, 3-veined from base, base wedge-shaped to truncate, margins irregularly serrate to dentate or entire, often with 2 prominent basal lobes, tip blunt to acuminate, surfaces covered with a mealy powder.

Inflorescences:

Small, dense, head-like clusters of minute flowers, in terminal and axillary compound spikes.

Flowers:

Tepals 5, distinct nearly to base, lobes ovate to deltate, .02 to .05 inch, usually prominently keeled along midvein at maturity, covering fruit at maturity or slightly spreading and partly exposing fruit at maturity; stamens 5.

Fruits:

Utricles, depressed-ovoid; outer wall honeycombed or wrinkled; seeds horizontal, black, tiny.

Habitat:

Open, disturbed ground, roadsides, and stream banks.

Distribution:

Occurs statewide

Origin:

Native

Comments:

This is our most common species of Chenopodium. Absent the fruits, it resembles Chenopodium album and Chenopodium missouriense. Two varieties occur in Kansas. Var. bushianum occurs only in the eastern quarter of the state from the Flint Hills eastward; var. zschackei occurs primarily in the western two-thirds of state from Flint Hills westward. Chenopodium (goose + foot), alludes to the shape of the leaves of some species; berlandieri is for Jean Louis Berlandier, who discovered the species.

Berlandier's goosefoot