Chenopodium murale L.
Chenopodiaceae (Goosefoot Family)
Europe
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Chenopodium murale L.Chenopodiaceae (Goosefoot Family)Europe
Nettle-Leaved Goosefoot |
April Photo
Plant Characteristics:
Rather stout annual, glabrous or sparsely mealy, ill-scented, branched
from base, the branches ascending, 2-5 dm. long; lvs. dark green, rhombic-ovate,
2-6 cm. long, irregularly sinuate-dentate; petioles equal to or shorter than
blades; fls. in small glomerules in lax or dense axillary and terminal short
panicles; calyx 1.5 mm. broad, deeply cleft, the lobes oblong, obscurely keeled,
incompletely enclosing the fr.; pericarp green, adherent; seed horizontal, ca.
1.5 mm. broad, puncticulate, with sharp edge.
Habitat:
Common weed about orchards and gardens; widespread in N. Am., most
Channel Ids. Most of the year, but
especially in the spring.
Name:
See other chenopods for the derivation of Chenopodium.
Latin, murus, wall.
English, mural, of or on walls. Intramural,
within walls. Murale, of walls.
(John Johnson).
General:
May be more common in the study area than would be evident without a
close look at each Chenopodium plant. It
is easy to glance at a plant and say that it is C.
album when this is not necessarily so.
Photographed along Back Bay Dr. near the intersection with Eastbluff Dr.
(my comments).
C. murale has been found to
accumulate free nitrates in quantities capable of causing death or distress in
cattle. (Fuller 385).
The Cahuilla Indians, inhabitants of the San Jacinto and San Bernardino
Mountains and the Colorado Desert, have several species of goosefoot in their
territory, including C. californicum,
C. humile, C. fremontii and C. murale.
A number of these species provided shoots and leaves that could be boiled
and eaten as greens. (Bean 52).
(see C. californicum
for other uses of the goosefoot plants).
Delfina Cuero, a Kumeyaay or Southern Diegueno Indian, made the following
comments about Chenopodium murale in
her autobiography: "We
gathered young leaves to boil for greens; the older leaves required 2 or 3
boilings to remove bitterness. When
seeds form, we gather them for pinole."
(Shipek 87).
A large genus, essentially cosmopolitan.
(Munz, Flora So. Calif. 359).
Text Ref:
Abrams Vol. II 70; Hickman Ed. 510; Munz, Flora
So. Calif. 364; Roberts 19.
Photo Ref:
April-May 88 # 21A; May 1 88 # 6.
Identity: by R. De Ruff,
confirmed by F. Roberts.
Computer Ref: Plant Data 365.
Have plant specimen.
Last edit 11/25/02.
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April Photo