Chenopodium berlandieri var. macrocalycium

Leaf blades broadly lanceolate, 1-6 cm, margins with a few teeth or lobes in basal ¹/2. Inflorescences erect with leafy bracts. Styles without yellow area at base. Seeds 1.3-1.9 mm diam.

Fruiting Sep. Coastal sands, beaches; 0-10 m; N.S., P.E.I.; Conn., Del., Fla., Ill., Ind., Maine, Md., Mass., N.J., N.Y., N.C., R.I., S.C., Va.

Annual herb to 0.5 m tall Stem: white-mealy. Leaves: alternate, stalked, 1 - 6 cm long, broadly lance-shaped, sparsely toothed or lobed basally, white-mealy. Inflorescence: a dense, irregularly rounded cluster of flowers (glomerule), which together form a small, upright spike with leafy bracts. Flowers: greenish, small, with five nearly distinct sepals and no petals. Sepals often prominently keeled, white-mealy. Stamens five. Stigmas two. Fruit: one-seeded (achene or utricle), sometimes enclosed in the persistent, incurved sepals, blackish, depressed egg-shaped, thin-walled. Wall (pericarp) adherent or non-adherent to the seed, honeycomb-like. Seed brown, 1.3 - 1.9 mm wide, round, round-margined, honeycomb-like.

Similar species: No information at this time.

Flowering: late June to mid-October

Habitat and ecology: Introduced from Europe. A weed of cultivated and waste ground.

Occurence in the Chicago region: non-native

Etymology: Chenopodium comes from the Greek words chen, meaning goose, and podion, meaning "little foot," referring to the leaf shape of some species. Berlandieri is named after Jean Louis Berlandier (1805-1851), the botanist who discovered the species.

Author: The Morton Arboretum