Chenopodium album L.
Family: Chenopodiaceae
Pertinent Synonyms & Notes (particularly those used in California; go to GRIN for other synonyms)
none
Pertinent Common Names (particularly those used in California; go to GRIN for other common names)
lambsquarters, fathen
Primary Disseminule Type
fruit (with or without attached perianth bracts)
Description (diagnostics are in brown)
Disseminule a fruit with or without attached perianth bracts (calyx). Fruiting calyx ca. 2 mm wide, 5-lobed, lobes ca. 1 mm long, imbricate, bluntly keeled on back, margins broadly hyaline, surface often farinaceous (covered with small, white scales).
Fruit an achene, round to ovoid or comma-shaped in outline, partially compressed, 0.9–1.6 mm in diameter, ca. 0.75 mm thick, the thin wall light brown, finely reticulate-papillate or sometimes smooth, the base with a distinct round attachment scar, the apex sometimes with stylar remnant.
Seed horizontal within fruit, round in outline (0.9–1.6 mm in diameter), compressed vertically, lenticular with the margin rounded to broadly angled. Surface shiny, smooth to indistinctly granulate and/or radially grooved or with faint reticulate-rugose ridges, black or rarely brown (the latter probably not viable).
Hilum marginal in notch.
Embryo annular, surrounding copious perisperm.
Similar Species
Risk Assessment (codes in yellow or red indicate cause for concern; assessments are current as of mid-2011; click AUQP, NZBORIC, or NZBPI for access to the most recent versions of these databases and possible assessment changes)
AUQP, NZBORIC, NZBPI