CHENOPODIACEAE

GOOSEFOOT FAMILY

Dieter H. Wilken, except as specified

Annual to tree, sometimes monoecious or dioecious, glandular or with bead-like hairs that collapse with age, becoming scaly or powdery
Stem often fleshy
Leaves generally alternate, entire to lobed; veins generally pinnate
Inflorescence: raceme, spike, catkin-like, or spheric cluster, or flower 1; bracts 0–few
Flower: sepals 1–5, often 0 in pistillate flowers, free or fused, generally persistent in fruit; petals 0; stamens 0–5; ovary generally superior, chamber 1, ovule 1, styles 1–3
Fruit: generally utricle
Seed 1, vertical (fruit compressed side-to-side) or horizontal (fruit compressed top-to-bottom)
Genera in family: 100 genera, 1300 species: worldwide, especially deserts, saline or alkaline soils; some cultivated for food (Beta , beets, chard; Chenopodium , quinoa)
Recent taxonomic note: Recently treated in expanded Amaranthaceae

BASSIA

Annual, generally hairy
Stem: axis generally erect; branches ascending to erect
Leaves linear to lanceolate, reduced upward
Inflorescence: spike; bracts leaf-like; flowers 1–few per axil
Flowers generally bisexual; calyx lobes 5, incurved, hooked-spiny in fruit; stamens generally 5; stigmas generally 2
Fruit ± depressed-spheric
Seed horizontal
Species in genus: ± 5 species: warm temp Eurasia
Etymology: (Ferdinando Bassi, Italian botanist, 1710–1774)
Perhaps best included in Kochia.

Introduced

B. hyssopifolia (Pall.) Kuntze

Plant < 1 m
Leaves: lower 5–60 mm, 1–3.5 mm wide, flat, often withered in fruit
Inflorescence 5–50 mm; bracts 2–5 mm, ± oblong
Flower: calyx densely tan-woolly, base in fruit leathery, spines ± 1 mm
Fruit 1–1.5 mm diam
Seed dark brown
Ecology: Disturbed sites, fields, roadsides
Elevation: < 1200 m.
Bioregional distribution: California (except Northwestern California, High Sierra Nevada)
Distribution outside California: widespread N.America; native to Eurasia
Flowering time: Jul–Oct
Sometimes confused with Kochia scoparia.