Ontario Weeds: Lamb's quarters
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Excerpt from Publication 505, Ontario Weeds,
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Table of Contents
- Name
- Other Names
- Family
- General Description
- Stems and Roots
- Leaves
- Flowers and Fruit
- Habitat
- Similar Species
- Related Links
Name: Lamb's-quarters, Chenopodium
album L.,
Other Names: chénopode blanc,
Fat-hen, Pigweed, White goosefoot, White pigweed, chou gras, poulette
grasse, ansérine blanche
Family: Goosefoot Family (Chenopodiaceae)
General Description: Annual, reproducing
only by seed. Very variable in appearance.
Lamb's quarters. A. Young flowering plant. B. Seedling in 2nd true-leaf stage, top and side views. C. Seedling in 6th true-leaf stage.
Leaves: First 2 or 4 true leaves apparently opposite (2 per node), but all later leaves and branches distinctly alternate (1 per node); leaves stalked, the blades 3-10cm (1-4in.) long, lance-shaped or more often broadly triangular with irregular, usually shallow teeth; leaves green or grayish due to a covering of a white mealiness or powderiness, sometimes with reddish undersurface on young plants.
Flowers & Fruit: Flowers very small, greenish, densely grouped together into small, thick, granular clusters along the main stem and upper branches, having 5 green sepals but no petals; seeds small, rounded in outline, somewhat flattened, 1-1.5mm (1/25-1/16in.) in diameter, enclosed in a very thin, membranous, smooth, whitish covering (pericarp) which is readily fractured and lost when dry. Flowers from June to August.
Habitat: Lamb's-quarters is very widespread throughout Canada, occurring in cultivated fields, pastures, wasteland, roadsides, gardens and almost anywhere the soil is disturbed.
Related Links
... on general Weed
topics
... on weed identification, order OMAFRA
Publication 505: Ontario Weeds
... on weed control, order OMAFRA
Publication 75: Guide To Weed Control
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