Amaranthus blitoides

Procumbent pigweed, Procumbent Pigweed

Family: Amaranthaceae · Type: perennial · Native

Procumbent pigweed is a native perennial found in California's Central Valley, western Mojave Desert, and Inyo Mountains in disturbed areas, roadsides, and agricultural fields at elevations below 2,500 meters. Flowering from July to November, this plant produces green flowers in small axillary clusters with leaf-like bracts. Growing as a prostrate, mat-forming plant with green or occasionally purple stems spreading 30 to 120 centimeters across, it forms dense ground cover in open areas. Its leaves are spoon-shaped to obovate, 10 to 30 millimeters long with wedge-shaped bases and rounded tips, growing on short 3 to 15 millimeter petioles. The plant produces small circumscissile fruits 2 to 2.5 millimeters long that are green to occasionally purple and slightly wrinkled near the tip.

Habitat: Disturbed areas, roadsides, agricultural fields, sandy soils

Bloom period: Jul-Nov

Elevation: < 2500 m

Bioregions: CA-FP, W&ampI, D

California counties: San Bernardino, Los Angeles, San Diego, Riverside, Alameda, Fresno, Orange, Tulare, San Luis Obispo, Santa Barbara, Stanislaus, Ventura, Inyo, Mono, Imperial, Kern, Sonoma, Modoc, Santa Clara, Siskiyou, Lake, Sutter, Monterey, Yolo, Colusa, Kings, Glenn, San Joaquin, Sacramento, Lassen, Shasta, Tuolumne, San Benito, Contra Costa, Butte, Tehama, Napa, Marin, Mariposa, Amador, Solano, Merced, Madera, Plumas, Santa Cruz

Data from The California Species Project — 14,000+ California species with verified data from CNPS, CDFW, USFWS, Jepson eFlora, Cal-IPC, and more.