CHENOPODIUM GIGANTEUM

Family and Genus:- See- AMARANTHACEAE

Common Name:- Giant goosefoot, Tree spinach.

Homotypic Synonyms:- None.

Meaning:- Chenopodium (Gr) Goose-foot.

Giganteum (Gr) Unusually large or tall, gigantic.

General description:- Tall, erect annual herb.

Stems:-

1) Generally with bands alternatively white and green, striated with red, glabrous,

erect, grooved, angular, simple or branched, young parts of the plant often

densely farinose from red vesicular hairs.

Leaves:-

1) Alternate, simple, lanceolate to rhomboid, petiolate.

a) blade, flat but with sinuate margins. glabrous, dentate, seldom entire, often

farinose

b) mature blade, to 14 cm, longer than the petiole. broadly deltoid to deltoid with

a rounded apex and denticulate basal lobes .

Flowers:-

1) Inflorescence, terminal, densely arranged, with small glomerules, greenish white.

from 1 to 2mm diam, united into branched spikes from 5 to 10cm, in length.

2) Perianth, with 5 free or scarcely partly fused tepals.

3) Stamens, 5, opposite the tepals.

4) Ovary, superior.

Fruit:-

1) Seed, c. 1 mm, roundish-Ienticular, obtuse at the edges.

a) testa, almost smooth.

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Habitat:- Weed of gardens, harbours, roadsides and other anthopogenic, more or

less ruderal habitats. 0-400 m.

Distribution:- Scattered in coastal areas of W. Greece. Probably native to India,

widely naturalised in the Mediterranean region. Limited distribution on Crete mainly

around coastal areas.

Flowering time:- Aug-Oct.

Photos by:- A. N. Other