Chenopodium album complex
(C. Album)

Lamb's-Quarters

Flowers Just Before Opening
Regina
17-July-2002

Note the 5-lobed, non-scarious calyx.

The Flora of Canada describes a Chenopodium album complex containing six "microspecies", with C. album as the type.  The plant depicted here is C. Album.

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Album Characteristics
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calyx not fleshy even in fruit

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calyx usually greenish; NOT bright red and strawberry-like

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calyx lobes keeled

 

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Chenopodium Characteristics
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plants may be glabrous, scurfy or pubescent; but NOT with long, soft hairs

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flowers not sunk into a fleshy stem

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no flowers with enclosing bracts

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calyx lobes not forming slender hooked spines, but may be horned or narrowly winged

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calyx with 3-5 sepals

 

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Chenopodiaceae Characteristics
(Not all these points apply to all genera in Chenopodiaceae, but they all do apply to genus Chenopodium.)
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flowers small, numerous, greenish

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flowers not subtended by scarious bracts

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flowers with only one floral ring, with sepals but not petals

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perianth segments greenish

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perianth segments 2-5

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sepals herbaceous or fleshy; NOT scarious