365 Urban Species. #135: Lambsquarters.

[urbpan]

Photo by cottonmanifesto

Urban species #135: Lambsquarters Chenopodium album

When wild foods enthusiasts talk about the superior nutrition of wild collected plants, lambsquarters is the best example (though dandelion is no slouch). Also called wild spinach, this sidewalk weed is very similar to Popeye's favorite green in nutritional content, and superior in some categories. Pictured above is the spring rosette, when the plant should be harvested, before it becomes too bitter. As summer comes, this weed will grow to four, five, or even six feet, and will bear small, green, inconspicuous flowers.

The strange common name, and the Genus name (Chenopodium means "goose foot") come from the shape of the leaves. A butcher's cut of lamb, and the foot of a goose are apparently similar in silhouette. Another common name used for this plant is pigweed--but other weeds share that name, making it less useful than others. The literal translation of its scientific name is also used: white goosefoot. Lambsquarters is native to Eurasia, and its seed is thought to have been accidentally introduced to North America in livestock feed.

Comments

[almeda.livejournal.com]

In Chicago, at least, there is a common (fungus?) that makes large purple blotches on the leaves of lambsquarters, looking rather like port-wine marks on humans.

To the point that when I saw some plain-green ones I had no idea what plant they were, 'cause they had no polka-dots. :->

[ursulav.livejournal.com]

Your blog was just recommmended to me as a guy who knows his weeds, and now I find you're big into urban nature, which is delightful!

And then I found you linked to my echidna milk ad, so obviously it was meant to be. I look forward to seeing more urban species!

[urbpan.livejournal.com]

I really like what you had to say about weeds--that you should get to know them before killing them. I feel the same thing, very strongly. That was how I got started learning urban plants. In my little yard in Boston, I wanted to know what everything was--it pretty much all turned out to be bad: bittersweet, black swallow-wort, knotweed, etc. But that was in the days before garlic mustard.

Happy to have you on board!

I love your artwork. It's nice that my stepdaughter has started recommending stuff to me--and you're the first.