Chenopodium murale

Nettle leaf goosefoot

Family: Chenopodiaceae · Type: annual · Not Native

Nettle leaf goosefoot is a naturalized annual herb found in California's Foothills and Desert regions in disturbed areas and fields at elevations below 2,900 meters. Flowering all year, this plant produces small inconspicuous green flowers in axillary and terminal clusters. Growing 15 to 50 centimeters tall with upright branching stems, it develops a powdery appearance when young. Its distinctive leaves are deltate or diamond-shaped, 0.8 to 4 centimeters long, with wedge-shaped bases and toothed edges that darken from powdery green to shiny dark green. The tiny fruits are scale-like, about 1 to 1.5 millimeters in diameter, with horizontally positioned seeds that have sharply angled margins.

Habitat: Common. Disturbed areas, fields

Bloom period: All year

Elevation: < 2900 m

Bioregions: CA-FP, D (uncommon)

California counties: Los Angeles, Riverside, Santa Barbara, San Diego, San Mateo, Ventura, Monterey, Imperial, Orange, Fresno, San Bernardino, Kern, San Luis Obispo, San Francisco, Inyo, Santa Clara, Lake, Tulare, El Dorado, Sonoma, Yolo, San Joaquin, Butte, Sutter, Stanislaus, Solano, Mendocino, Contra Costa, Marin, Humboldt, Alameda, Merced, Napa, Calaveras, Amador, Plumas, Madera, Sacramento, Modoc, 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.