Jepson Herbarium
		University of California, Berkeley

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Annual to shrub; hairs simple, stellate or glandular; plants generally scaly, mealy, or powdery from collapsed glands; generally monoecious.
Stem: occasionally fleshy.
Leaf: blade simple, generally alternate, occasionally fleshy or reduced to scales, veins pinnate; stipules 0.
Inflorescence: raceme, spike, catkin-like, spheric heads, or flowers 1; bracts 0–5, herbaceous, generally persistent or strongly modified in fruit, wings, tubercles or spines present or 0.
Flower: bisexual or unisexual, small, green; calyx parts (1)3–5, or 0 in pistillate flowers, free or fused basally, leaf-like in texture, membranous or fleshy, deciduous or not, generally strongly modified in fruit; corolla 0; stamens 1–5, opposite to calyx parts, filaments free, equal; anthers 4-chambered; ovary superior (1/2-inferior), chamber 1; ovule 1; styles, stigmas 1–4.
Fruit: achene or utricle, generally with persistent calyx or bracts.
Seed: 1, small, lenticular to spheric; seed coat smooth to finely dotted, warty, net-like, or prickly, margin occasionally winged.
100 genera, 1500 species: worldwide, especially deserts, saline or alkaline soils; some cultivated for food (Beta vulgaris subsp. vulgaris, beet, Swiss chard; Spinacia oleracea L., spinach; Chenopodium quinoa Willd., quinoa); and some worldwide, naturalized ruderal or noxious agricultural weeds. Nitrophila treated in Amaranthaceae, Sarcobatus treated in Sarcobataceae. —Scientific Editors: Douglas H. Goldman, Bruce G. Baldwin.

Key to Chenopodiaceae

Annual or perennial herb, glabrous or powdery.
Stem: branches 0 to generally erect ( spreading).
Leaf: generally petioled; blade linear to deltate or diamond-shaped, entire to lobed or toothed, reduced distally on stem; proximal leaves generally early- deciduous.
Inflorescence: spheric clusters or flower 1, in spikes, or panicle-like, generally dense; bracts generally 0; flowers generally sessile.
Flower: sepals generally 5, fused or not, persistent, flat to keeled; stamens generally 5; stigmas 2(5).
Fruit: enclosed or subtended by calyx; fruit wall membranous or papery, free or attached to seed and generally loosening in age.
Seed: vertical or horizontal, lenticular to ± spheric, red-brown to black; wall thin.
± 100 species: temperate; some cultivated for food or grain. (Greek: goose foot, from leaf shape of some species) [Clemants & Mosyakin 2003 FNANM 4:275–299] Fr generally required for identification. Other species in TJM (1993) now treated in Dysphania.
Unabridged references: [Crawford 1975 Brittonia 27:279–288; Wahl 1954 Bartonia 27:1–46]
Unabridged note: Powder on plants from small, inflated hairs.

Perennial 20–90 cm; caudex stout, fleshy.
Stem: several from base, decumbent to ascending.
Leaf: blade 40–100 mm, broadly deltate, coarsely dentate to wavy-toothed, base truncate to hastate or cordate, tip acute.
Inflorescence: clusters < 10 mm diam, in terminal, interrupted spikes 8–20 cm.
Flower: calyx tube generally > lobes, enclosing fruit, lobes 4(5), oblong to elliptic, ± erect, flat, ± glabrous.
Fruit: 1.5–2 mm diam; wall attached to seed.
Seed: vertical.
Generally open sites, sandy to clay soils; < 2000 m. s North Coast, Outer North Coast Ranges, Inner North Coast Ranges, c&s Sierra Nevada Foothills, Tehachapi Mountain Area, Great Central Valley, Central Western California, Southwestern California, s East of Sierra Nevada, w Mojave Desert;

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Next taxon: Chenopodium capitatum

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Citation for the whole project: Jepson Flora Project (eds.) [year] Jepson eFlora, http://ucjeps.berkeley.edu/IJM.html [accessed on month, day, year]
Citation for an individual treatment: [Author of taxon treatment] [year]. [Taxon name] in Jepson Flora Project (eds.) Jepson eFlora, [URL for treatment]. Accessed on [month, day, year].

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Bioregions in which taxon occurs	Red area (if present) is the part of the bioregion lying between the upper and lower elevation limits of the taxon; markers link to CCH specimen records. If the markers are obscured, reload the page [or change window size and reload]. Yellow markers indicate records that may have georeferencing or identification issues.
Chart based on elevation range in Manual and elevations and coordinates of CCH records. Data provided by the participants of the Consortium of California Herbaria. Note: About half of the CCH records include both elevation and coordinates.	Map made in collaboration with Scott Loarie. Data provided by the participants of the Consortium of California Herbaria. View all CCH records   CCH collections by month Duplicates counted once; synonyms included. Species do not include records of infraspecific taxa. Blue line denotes Manual flowering time.