Plantae > Tracheophyta > Magnoliopsida > Caryophyllales > Amaranthaceae > Chenopodium > Chenopodium album

Chenopodium album (lambsquarters goosefoot; common lambsquarters; lambsquarters; white goosefoot)

Synonyms:

Wikipedia Abstract

Chenopodium album is a fast-growing weedy annual plant in the genus Chenopodium. Though cultivated in some regions, the plant is elsewhere considered a weed. Common names include lamb's quarters, melde, goosefoot and fat-hen, though the latter two are also applied to other species of the genus Chenopodium, for which reason it is often distinguished as white goosefoot. It is sometimes also called pigweed, however, pigweed is also a name for a few weeds in the family Amaranthaceae,: it is for example used for the redroot pigweed (Amaranthus retroflexus).
View Wikipedia Record: Chenopodium album

Infraspecies

Chenopodium album album
Chenopodium album borbasii
Chenopodium album ovatum
Chenopodium album var. candicans
Chenopodium album var. missouriense
Chenopodium album var. stevensii
Chenopodium album var. striatum

Attributes

Allergen Potential [1]  High
Edible [2]  May be edible. See the Plants For A Future link below for details.
Flower Type [2]  Hermaphrodite
Hazards [2]  The leaves and seeds of all members of this genus are more or less edible. However, many of the species in this genus contain saponins, though usually in quantities too small to do any harm. Although toxic, saponins are poorly absorbed by the body and most pass straight through without any problem. They are also broken down to a large extent in the cooking process. Saponins are found in many foods, such as some beans. Saponins are much more toxic to some creatures, such as fish, and hunting tribes have traditionally put large quantities of them in streams, lakes etc in order to stupefy or kill the fish; The plants also contain some oxalic acid, which in large quantities can lock up some of the nutrients in the food, but these plants are very nutritious vegetables in reasonable quantities. Cooking the plant will reduce its content of oxalic acid. People with a tendency to rheumatism, arthritis, gout, kidney stones or hyperacidity should take especial caution if including this plant in their diet since it can aggravate their condition; There is also a report that very large quantities of the leaves have caused photosensitivity in some people; Only the raw leaves can cause problems, and then only if large quantities are consumed; A further report says that if the plant is grown in soils that contain too much nitrates then the plant can concentrate these substances in the leaves. Nitrates have been shown to cause many health problems including stomach cancers and blue-baby syndrome. In nitrogen-rich soils, the plants can also concentrate hydrogen cyanide; In small quantities, hydrogen cyanide has been shown to stimulate respiration and improve digestion, it is also claimed to be of benefit in the treatment of cancer. In excess, however, it can cause respiratory failure and even death.
Lifespan [2]  Annual
Pollinators [2]  Wind
Structure [4]  Herb
Usage [2]   A green dye is obtained from the young shoots; The crushed fresh roots are a mild soap substitute;
Height [2]  35 inches (0.9 m)
Width [2]  8 inches (0.2 m)
Light Preference [3]  Mostly Sunny
Soil Acidity [3]  Neutral
Soil Fertility [3]  Rich
Soil Moisture [3]  Moist
View Plants For A Future Record : Chenopodium album

Protected Areas

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Ecosystems

Predators

Providers

Pollinated by 
Episyrphus balteatus (Marmelade Fly)[6]

Consumers

External References

USDA Plant Profile

NatureServe Explorer

Citations

Attributes / relations provided by
♦ 1Derived from Allergy-Free Gardening OPALS™, Thomas Leo Ogren (2000)
♦ 2Plants For A Future licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License
♦ 3ECOFACT 2a Technical Annex - Ellenberg’s indicator values for British Plants, M O Hill, J O Mountford, D B Roy & R G H Bunce (1999)
♦ 4Kattge, J. et al. (2011b) TRY - a global database of plant traits Global Change Biology 17:2905-2935
♦ 5Ben-Dov, Y., Miller, D.R. & Gibson, G.A.P. ScaleNet 4 November 2009
♦ 6Ecology of Commanster
♦ 7del Hoyo, J., Elliott, A., Sargatal, J., Christie, D.A. & de Juana, E. (eds.). Handbook of the Birds of the World Alive. Lynx Edicions, Barcelona.
♦ 8HOSTS - a Database of the World's Lepidopteran Hostplants Gaden S. Robinson, Phillip R. Ackery, Ian J. Kitching, George W. Beccaloni AND Luis M. Hernández
♦ 9Jorrit H. Poelen, James D. Simons and Chris J. Mungall. (2014). Global Biotic Interactions: An open infrastructure to share and analyze species-interaction datasets. Ecological Informatics.
♦ 10Biological Records Centre Database of Insects and their Food Plants
♦ 11Study of Northern Virginia Ecology
♦ 12New Zealand Institute for Plant & Food Research Plant-SyNZ™ database
♦ 13Orłowski, G., & Czarnecka, J. (2013). Re-evaluation of the role of the grey partridge Perdix perdix as a disperser of arable weed seeds. Journal of ornithology, 154(1), 139-144.
♦ 14Species Interactions of Australia Database, Atlas of Living Australia, Version ala-csv-2012-11-19
Abstract provided by DBpedia licensed under a Creative Commons License
Species taxanomy provided by GBIF Secretariat (2022). GBIF Backbone Taxonomy. Checklist dataset https://doi.org/10.15468/39omei accessed via GBIF.org on 2023-06-13; License: CC BY 4.0