26 



FIG, 8. 



PIGWEED, OR REDROOT. 

 Amarantus retro flexus (L). 



An annual, with pink root, stout, erect stem, and many branches. 

 It grows from 1 to 6 feet high. The leaves are light green in color, and 

 ovate in shape. The flowers are in spikes, which terminate branches or 

 are from the axils of the leaves, and are green in color. 



The seeds (Fig. 8, a) are round and lens-shaped, smooth and shiny 

 black in color, resembling the seed of Lamb's Quarters, but slightly smal- 

 ler and thinner. An average plant produces 15,000 seeds. 



Time of flowering, July-September. 



Time of seeding, August- October. 



Dispersal the seed is distributed by the wind and as an impurity in 

 grass seed. 



Eradication. Special attention must be given to fall cultivation of 

 the soil, so as to prevent plants from ripening, and to sprout and destroy 

 the seeds which have fallen upon the ground. The land should be gang- 

 plowed shallow and harrowed immediately after harvest, and cultivated 

 at intervals until late in the fall, when it may be plowed or ribbed up 

 for a hoed crop the following spring. Subsequent treatment the same as 

 for Foxtail (Fig. 1). 



