DESCRIPTIONS OF SOME COMMON WEEDS 



169 



Other troublesome species are maple-leaved goosefoot 

 (Chenopodium hybridum), bright green, thin leaves, some- 

 what triangular, heart shaped, and taper pointed. A tall 

 and coarse weed. 



Goosefoot or Lamb's Quarter (Chenopodium album, 

 L.). An erect annual growing from one to four feet 

 high ; young plants generally mealy and furnish a very 

 good substitute for aspara- 

 gus ; old plants smooth ; 

 leaves rhombic-ovate to 

 lanceolate, upper leaves 

 sometimes linear ; flowers 

 quite inconspicuous, pro- 

 duced in dense, clustered 

 panicles; seeds small, black 

 and frequently inclosed by 

 a thin membrane called the 

 utricle. Abundant in all 

 parts of the Mississippi Val- 

 ley and seen, as far West as 

 the coast. Native to Europe, 

 and common in eastern 

 North America as well as in 

 Europe and Asia. 



Orach (Atriplex patula, 

 L.) Erect or prostrate, 



, , 



glabrous. Leaves narrowly 

 lanceolate hastate, the lower entire or nearly so, petioled, 

 the upper leaves linear ; flowers in slender spikes. Fruit- 

 ing bracts ovate-triangular, entire or toothed. From north- 

 eastern United States to Missouri and British Columbia. 

 Russian Thistle (Salsola Kali, L., var. tenuifolia, G. W. 

 F. Mey.). An herbaceous, smooth or slightly pubescent 

 annual, very diffusely branched from the base and spher- 

 ical in the mature form, which is from one to three and 

 one-half feet tall ; leaves fleshy, succulent and arranged 



Fig. 103. Goosefoot or lamb's 

 quarter (Chenopodium album). 



