52 FARM WEEDS OF CANADA 



should be cut with a hoe from time to time during the summer. 

 In western Canada, the harrowing of the grain crops, combined 

 with periodic clean summer-fallowing, will keep this weed in 

 check. 



ALLIED SPECIES: Maple-leaved Goosefoot (Chenopodium 

 hybridum L.). A plant very similar to Lamb's Quarters, with 

 large green, very coarsely 2 to 6-toothed leaves. Its seed is 

 larger (1/15 of an inch in diameter), of exactly the same appear- 

 ance as that of Lamb's Quarters, and is sometimes found in 

 crop seeds. 



RUSSIAN PIGWEED {Axyris amarantoides L.). 



Introduced from Europe. Annual. A tall, coarse plant, 

 from 2 to 4 feet high, erect and widely branching, very leafy. 

 When young much like Lamb's Quarters, but paler green with a 

 more wand-like habit of growth, and, instead of being mealy in 

 appearance it has soft, short, star-shaped hairs. When full- 

 grown the whole plant forms a large pyramidal compound 

 raceme; the stems, bracts and the papery calyx segments turn 

 white and make it very conspicuous. 



The seed (Plate 72, fig. 15) is oval, flattened, 1/12 of an inch 

 long, gray or brown with a silky lustre, surface minutely lined 

 and wrinkled lengthwise, basal scar a short thin groove across 

 the lower end; many seeds have a close-fitting papery envelope, 

 projecting above the top as a 2-lobed wing. 



Time of flowering: June; seeds ripe July-August. 



Propagation: By seeds. 



Occurrence: The species was first noticed in Canada in 1886, 

 by the roadside at Headingly, Man., 14 miles west of Winnipeg, 

 where it is said to have been brought direct from Russia. It 

 is now found along the railways throughout the West, and has 

 even been detected on a railway bank as far east as St. John, N.B. 



