Jepson Herbarium
The University and Jepson Herbaria
University of California, Berkeley
Jepson eFlora: Taxon page
Vascular Plants of California
Key to families | Table of families and genera
Previous taxon Index to accepted names and synonyms:
| A | B | C | D | E | F | G | H | I | J | K | L | M |
| N | O | P | Q | R | S | T | U | V | W | X | Y | Z |
Next taxon

Chenopodium californicum

CALIFORNIA GOOSEFOOT


Higher Taxonomy
Family: ChenopodiaceaeView DescriptionDichotomous Key
Common Name: GOOSEFOOT FAMILY
Habit: Annual to shrub; hairs simple, stellate, or glandular; plants in several genera scaly, mealy, or powdery from collapsed glands; monoecious, dioecious, with bisexual flowers, or with both bisexual and unisexual flowers. Stem: occasionally fleshy. Leaf: blade simple, generally alternate, occasionally fleshy or reduced to scales, veins pinnate; stipules 0. Inflorescence: raceme, spike, catkin-like, spheric head, axillary clusters of flowers, 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, generally green; calyx parts (1)3--5, or 0 in pistillate flowers, free or fused basally (or +- throughout), leaf-like in texture, membranous, or fleshy, deciduous or not, often strongly modified in fruit; corolla 0; stamens 1--5, opposite sepals, filaments free, equal; anthers 4-chambered; ovary superior (1/2-inferior), chamber 1; ovule 1; styles, stigmas 1--4 (or stigmas sessile). Fruit: achene or utricle, generally falling 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.
Genera In Family: 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. Note: Nitrophila treated in Amaranthaceae, Sarcobatus treated in Sarcobataceae. Key to genera revised by Elizabeth H. Zacharias to incorporate Extriplex and Stutzia, 2 genera segregated from Atriplex. Native spp. of Kochia now treated in Neokochia. Chenopodiaceae often treated now within a more broadly circumscribed Amaranthaceae (Morales-Briones et al. 2021).
eFlora Treatment Author: Mihai Costea, family description, key to genera, revised by Thomas J. Rosatti & Elizabeth H. Zacharias, except as noted
Scientific Editor: Bruce G. Baldwin, David J. Keil, Thomas J. Rosatti, Margriet Wetherwax.
Genus: ChenopodiumView DescriptionDichotomous Key


Common Name: PIGWEED, GOOSEFOOT
Habit: 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.
Etymology: (Greek: goose foot, from leaf shape of some species) Note: Fruit generally required for identification. Other species in TJM (1993) now treated in Dysphania.
Unabridged Note: Powder on plants from small, inflated hairs.
eFlora Treatment Author: Steven E. Clemants & Nuri Benet-Pierce
Reference: Clemants & Mosyakin 2003 FNANM 4:275--299
Unabridged Reference: Crawford 1975 Brittonia 27:279--288; Wahl 1954 Bartonia 27:1--46
Chenopodium californicum (S. Watson) S. Watson
NATIVE
Habit: Perennial herb 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.
Ecology: Generally open sites, sandy to clay soils; Elevation: < 2000 m. Bioregional Distribution: s NCo, NCoRO, NCoRI, c&s SNF, Teh, GV, CW, SW, s SNE, w DMoj; Distribution Outside California: Baja California. Flowering Time: Mar--Sep
Jepson eFlora Author: Steven E. Clemants & Nuri Benet-Pierce
Reference: Clemants & Mosyakin 2003 FNANM 4:275--299
Index of California Plant Names (ICPN; linked via the Jepson Online Interchange)

Previous taxon: Chenopodium berlandieri var. zschackei
Next taxon: Chenopodium capitatum

Botanical illustration including Chenopodium californicumbotanical illustration including Chenopodium californicum


Please use this Google Form for Contact/Feedback

Citation for this treatment: Steven E. Clemants & Nuri Benet-Pierce 2012, Chenopodium californicum, in Jepson Flora Project (eds.) Jepson eFlora, https://ucjeps.berkeley.edu/eflora/eflora_display.php?tid=19155, accessed on December 03, 2024.

Citation for the whole project: Jepson Flora Project (eds.) 2024, Jepson eFlora, https://ucjeps.berkeley.edu/eflora/, accessed on December 03, 2024.

Chenopodium californicum
click for image enlargement
©2017 Neal Kramer
Chenopodium californicum
click for image enlargement
©2014 Steve Matson
Chenopodium californicum
click for image enlargement
©2023 Barry Rice
Chenopodium californicum
click for image enlargement
©2014 Steve Matson
Chenopodium californicum
click for image enlargement
©2006 Steve Matson

More photos of Chenopodium californicum
in CalPhotos



Geographic subdivisions for Chenopodium californicum:
s NCo, NCoRO, NCoRI, c&s SNF, Teh, GV, CW, SW, s SNE, w DMoj
MAP CONTROLS
1. You can change the display of the base map layer control box in the upper right-hand corner.
2. County and Jepson Region polygons can be turned off and on using the check boxes.
map of distribution 1

(Note: any qualifiers in the taxon distribution description, such as 'northern', 'southern', 'adjacent' etc., are not reflected in the map above, and in some cases indication of a taxon in a subdivision is based on a single collection or author-verified occurrence).






 

Data provided by the participants of the  Consortium of California Herbaria.

MAP LEGEND
View all CCH records
All markers link to CCH specimen records. The original determination is shown in the popup window.
Blue markers indicate specimens that map to one of the expected Jepson geographic subdivisions (see left map). Purple markers indicate specimens collected from a garden, greenhouse, or other non-wild location.
Yellow markers indicate records that may provide evidence for eFlora range revision or may have georeferencing or identification issues.
READ ABOUT YELLOW FLAGS

CCH collections by month Flowering-Fruiting Monthly Counts

Duplicates counted once; synonyms included.
Species do not include records of infraspecific taxa, if there are more than 1 infraspecific taxon in CA.
Blue line denotes eFlora flowering time (fruiting time in some monocot genera).