120 CHENOPODIACEAE (GOOSEFOOT FAMILY) 



clustered in the axils ; these each produce a single ovoid, flattened 

 seed, about a tenth of an inch long, minutely ridged lengthwise, 

 gray and shining ; many seeds have the utricle or papery covering 

 persistently enfolding them and projecting 

 from the top as a two-lobed wing. When 

 mature, the stems, bracts, and calyx lobes 

 turn white, and the plants are then very con- 

 spicuous. They frequently become tumble- 

 weeds, the woody, brittle stems breaking at 

 the base and the whole weed rolling away 

 before the wind, sowing seed as it goes; by 

 this means its range is being very rapidly 

 extended. 



Means of control 



In grain fields, large numbers of the young 

 seedlings may be dragged out with a weeding 

 harrow, in the spring, when the crop is but 

 a few inches high ; plants that survive this 

 treatment should be hand-pulled later, but 

 before their rank growth injures the crop by 

 absorbing its food and moisture. Meadows 

 infested by the weed should be early cut in 

 FIG. 73. Russian or ^ er to prevent fouling the soil with the 



Pigweed (Axyris ama- seed. Plants along roadsides and railways 

 and in waste places should be cut while in 



early flower, and burned so as to make certain that no seed 



shall mature. 



ROUGH PIGWEED 



Amardnthus retroflexus, L. 



Other English names: Redroot Pigweed, Chinaman's Greens. 



Introduced. Annual. Propagates by seeds. 



Time of bloom : July to September. 



Seed-time: August to November. 



Range: Throughout North America except the far North. Native 



of tropical America and indigenous in the Southwest. 

 Habitat : Cultivated ground ; waste places. 



