CHENOPODIUM VULVARIA

Family and Genus:- See- AMARANTHACEAE

Common Name:- Stinking goosefoot.

Homotypic Synonyms:- Atriplex vulvaria.

Meaning:- Chenopodium (Gr) Goose-foot.

Vulvaria (L) Cleft, of the Vulva.

General description:- Much-branched, procumbent, annual. covered with a meal-

like grey powder (grey-farinose), smelling of decaying fish.

Stems:-

1) (4-)10-65 cm.

Leaves:-

1) Rather small up to 2·5(-3) x 2·3(-2·7) cm.

a) blade, broadly ovate to deltoid, entire or with an acute angle on each margin

at the broadest part, truncate to rounded at the base more or less densely

grey-farinose beneath.

Flowers:-

1) Inflorescences, terminal and axillary, small, leafy.

2) Sepals, 5, not keeled.

Fruit:-

1) Seeds,1-1·5 mm diam, brownish-black, obtusely keeled.

Key features:-

1) Inflorescence-axes and outside of sepals, ± conspicuously farinose, at least

when young.

2) Plant, smelling strongly of decaying fish.

3) Leaves, entire or with a single angle on 1 or both sides towards the base.

Click here for a glossary of terms used.

Habitat:- Cultivated places, waste ground, waysides, harbours, by streets in towns

and villages 0-800(-1400) m.

Distribution:- Widespread across the Mediterranean and Europe and temperate

Asia. limited distribution on Crete mainly around coastal areas.

Flowering time:- May-Sept.

Photos by:- Zacharias Angourakis