AMARANTHACEAE (AMARANTH FAMILY) 



125 



Means of control 



Prevent seed production. In meadows or permanent pastures 

 every stalk should be closely cut or hand-pulled before the flower- 

 spikes develop. Cultivated ground should not be neglected in the 

 latter part of the season, for it is the late-blooming plants that 

 usually seed the soil. Potato and corn land should be plowed or 

 well disked after harvest, and a winter crop sown which will keep 

 down the weed. 



WATER HEMP 

 Acnlda tuberculdta, Moq. 



Native. Annual. Propagates by seeds. 

 Time of bloom : July to September. 

 Seed-time: August to October. 

 Range: Vermont and Massachusetts to 



Manitoba and the Dakotas, southward 



to Louisiana and New Mexico. 

 Habitat: Wet meadows, swamps, and 



marshes, sides of ditches. 



Water Hemp has somewhat the ap- 

 pearance of a large, succulent Amaranth. 

 Stem smooth, erect, sometimes nearly 

 an inch in diameter at the base and at- 

 taining ten feet or more in height, but 

 more often three to six feet tall, with 

 many slender, flexuous branches. Leaves 

 two to six inches long, lance-shape ap- 

 proaching to rhombic, entire, smooth 

 but with prominent pinnate veins, and 

 pointed at both ends ; petioles slender 

 and shorter than the blades. Flowers 

 dioecious, in dense terminal or axillary 

 spikes, sometimes interrupted and leafy, 

 each small and greenish blossom guarded 

 by one to three awl-like bracts. The 

 sterile flowers have five stamens and 

 five sharp-pointed, erect, one-nerved 

 sepals, longer than the rigid bracts ; the 

 pistillate flowers are without a calyx and 



FIG. 78. 

 (Acnida tuberculata) . 



