Selected Plants of Navajo Rangelands

Diné bikéyah Chi’l nooséłígíí Bąąhą́ą́nosin

Take care of our Navajo Rangelands

Lambsquarters

(a.k.a. lamb's quarters, Chenopodium missouriense, Aellen)

Tł’oh dei hałgaí

Red stem and inflorescence with leaf beneath it

Russ Kleinman, Bill Norris, and the Range Vegetation class of autumn 2009 at WNMU

Lambsquarters are an erect herb with dentate leaves. The glomerules are densely packed and 2/16 to 4/16 inch in diameter. There are five sepals which are farinose (dusty in appearance), keeled, and enclose the seed. The pericarp (seed covering) is densely adherent such that the seed tears before the pericarp will separate. This variety of Chenopodium albums the native one, and is distinguished by stiff panicles, dense glomerules without interrupted areas, and purplish nodes. Chenopodium album var. missouriense is found at roadsides.

*Description based on description from Western New Mexico University's Vascular Plants of the Gila Wilderness.

Rhomboid leaf, green with red-tinged tip and wavy margin

Russ Kleinman, Bill Norris, and the Range Vegetation class of autumn 2009 at WNMU

Underside of leaf with characteristic mealy appearance

Russ Kleinman, Bill Norris, and the Range Vegetation class of autumn 2009 at WNMU

Flower clusters, called glomerules, tinged with red

Russ Kleinman, Bill Norris, and the Range Vegetation class of autumn 2009 at WNMU

Full inflorescence with yellow-green-red flower glomerules

Russ Kleinman, Bill Norris, and the Range Vegetation class of autumn 2009 at WNMU

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