AMARANTHACEAE (AMARANTH FAMILY) 123 
Odd corners and waste grounds should be well looked after, as 
many of the largest tumblers come from such places. 
PROSTRATE PIGWEED 
Amardnthus blitoides, Wats. 
Other English names: Matted Pigweed, Low Amaranth. 
Native. Annual. Propagates by seeds. 
Time of bloom: June to September. 
Seed-time: July to October. 
Range: Maine to Minnesota, southward to New Jersey, Texas, 
and Arizona. 
Habitat: Dry soil; cultivated ground, waste places. 
Often growing with the Tumbling Pigweed, and very like it in 
the shape of its small, spatulate leaves and small, greenish flowers ; 
but its pale green, succulent branches are more slender, slightly 
ridged, six inches to nearly two feet in length and lie flat on the 
ground, spreading on all sides from 
the central root and forming thick 
mats. Like the other, it crowds out 
better plants and absorbs much food 
and moisture from the soil. The 
bracts subtending the flowers are 
ovate to lance-shaped, hardly exceed- 
ing the sepals; stamens three; utricle 
smooth, the seed nearly twice as large 
as those of the Tumbleweed, and for 
that reason much more difficult to 
remove from other seeds, particularly 
clover. (Fig. 76.) This plant and 
the two preceding species are subject 
to the white mold which attacks beets, 
and may also harbor on their roots 
the small striped beet-feeding beetle 
(Systena teniata, Say) both in the 
larval and mature stages. 
It requires the same measures for 
its suppression as does the Tumble- 
weed. 
Fic. 76.— Prostrate Pigweed 
(Amaranthus blitoides). X 4. 
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