- Author: Lynn M. Sosnoskie
According to the CalFlora website (http://www.calflora.org/), 21 species of amaranths occur (to some extent) in California. While many are non-native, a few, including prostrate pigweed (Amaranthus blitoides) and Palmer amaranth (Amaranthus palmeri), are indigenous. While it may be convenient to lump all of the genus Amaranthus together when considering weed management options, proper identification is important for understanding the potential for crop yield loss (not all amaranths were created equal with respect to competitiveness) and the possibility of herbicide resistance (populations of Palmer amaranth with resistance to glyphosate have been confirmed in the...
- Author: Ben Faber
- Posted by:: Gale Perez
Occasionally plants show up in our office for identification and no one in the office knows what it is. So it's sent off to others who might know. This was the case of a perennial amaranth, also called goosefoot for some reason. This is Chenopodium californicum, also known as Blitum californicum.
Like other amaranths, it can be upright to 3 feet in height, or if mowed or grazed be more flattened or decumbent. It has a thick, fleshy stem that along with the leaves can be eaten. I guess pigs like it, because it's also called pigweed.
The leaves look sort of lettuce like, which gives it another name—Indian Lettuce.
The stem has also been used for...