Chenopodium berlandieri Moq.   =Chenopodium berlandieri var. sinuatum   Chenopodiaceae (Goosefoot Family)   Native   Pitseed Goosefoot

                                  July Photo

Plant Characteristics:  Like C. album but with thin membranous lvs. and a stronger unpleasant odor, slender leafy spikes, lvs. dentate but not lobed; calyx-lobes more sharply keeled; seeds mostly puncticulate and 1-1.3 mm. in diam.

Habitat:  In waste places.  No dates of bloom given in Munz.  My specimen was found in June.

Name.  Greek, chen, goose, and pous, foot, referring to the shape of the lvs. in some spp.  (Munz, Flora So. Calif. 359).  The species name is in honor of J.L. Berlandier, (?-1851),  Swiss botanist who collected in Texas and Mexico.  (Jaeger 306).  Latin, sinuatus, bent, curved.  (Jaeger 239).        

General:  Uncommon in the study area, although, the different species are so nearly alike that it may be much more prevalent than I am aware.  Photographed along Back Bay Dr. at the north end of Eastbluff and on the east side of the Delhi Ditch.  (my comments).      Delfina Cuero, a Kumeyaay or Southern Diegueno Indian, made the following comments about Chenopodium sp. in her autobiography:  "The roots are mashed for soap.  The seeds are ground for pinole."  (Shipek 87).      Indians boiled the leaves as spinach, sometimes eating them raw.  They would gather the seeds and grind them into a meal to be stored for future uses, such as bread making.  One variety was boiled and applied as a poultice to reduce swellings; also used in the mouth to relieve toothache.  For rheumatism, the affected parts were washed with a decoction of the leaves.  (Sweet 38.)      A large genus, essentially cosmopolitan.  (Munz, Flora So. Calif. 359).       Variety sinuatum not recognized in the Jepson Manual.  (Hickman, Ed. 1335).

Text Ref:  Robbins 150; Hickman, Ed. 508, 1335). Munz, Flora So. Calif. 361; Roberts 19.

Photo Ref:  July 1 86 # 23,24; June-July 87 # 5,6.

Identity: by R. De Ruff.

Computer Ref:  Plant Data 304.

Have plant specimen.

Last edit 11/24/02.

                                  April Photo