Stems decumbent or spreading, 0.1-1.8 dm. Leaf blades: margins entire or shallowly dentate. Vertical seeds 0.8-1(-1.2) mm diam.

Fruiting fall. Alkali flats, brackish beaches, bare bottomlands, lake shores, dried-up pools, somewhat akaline clay flats; 10-1500 m; Alta., B.C., N.B., N.S., Sask., Yukon; Alaska, Calif., Colo., Idaho, Maine, Mass., Minn., Mont., Nebr., Nev., N.Mex., N.Y., N.Dak., Oreg., Utah, Wash., Wyo.

Chenopodium rubrum var. humile has been treated as a species, variety, or form, or not recognized at all. It is native in western North America and introduced east of the plains. Sometimes it has been misidentified as C. chenopodioides. Patterns of distribution of these taxa in North America are in need of further study.