Chenopodium album / lamb’s quarters

Adjectives: disturbed, drought tolerant, nutrient poor soils, ruderal, silvery leaves, weed, widespread

Also known as:  bacon weed, fat hen, frost-blight, goosefoot, white goosefoot, manure weed and (not to be confused with Amaranthis retroflexus) pigweed; Weißer Gänsefuß (German), Chénopode blanc (French), Cenizo (Spanish), bathuaor bathuwa(बथुआ)  (Hindi) (Marathi:चाकवत), pappukurain (Telugu), paruppukkiraiin (Tamil), kaduomain (Kannada), vastuccirain (Malayalam), and chakvitin (Konkani).

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Supposedly, this species’ common name (or one of them) is based on the fact that the leaf shaped shaped like a goose’s foot (cheno-podium). Although this may require a bit of imagination, it is certainly the case that the plant and the leaves are grey-ish green, likely due to what several sites call a “mealy pubescence”… whatever “mealy” is. The undersides of the leaves are somewhat more whitish than the tops.

Once the plants start flowering, their most distinguishing characteristic is that the flowers just look like little green nobs, densely packed along the stem.

Lamb’s quarters is not fussy about where it grows; it will accept any soil type, even cracks in pavement, but grows more exuberantly in nutrient rich soil. The combination of rich soil and disturbance makes this species classify as a ruderal.

Chenopodium album is one of the most widely distributed weeds in the world, reportedly even in Antarctica. Its origin is uncertain however. It may be native to North America, but perhaps not. And despite its classification as a weed here (and most other places on the continent), it has been used raw or cooked as a spinach like plant in the past. In fact, even today, it is extensively cultivated as a food crop in northern India; hence the large number of common names in Hindi and other Indian languages. Interestingly, and not clearly explainable, the juice of the plant is also used as an ingredient in wall plaster there. I don’t think this makes dishes made with C. album, stick to your ribs.

Lamb’s quarter is in the same genus as the recent Idaho crop, quinoa. Like quinoa, it produces tens of thousands of seeds per plant, and they are high in protein, vitamin A, and minerals.