Chenopodium pratericola

Desert goosefoot

Family: Chenopodiaceae · Type: annual · Native

Desert goosefoot is a California native annual found in the California Range, Sierra Nevada, Central Valley, eastern San Francisco Bay Area, southern Coast Ranges, western Transverse Ranges, southeastern Sierra Nevada, and Desert regions in open, dry places at elevations below 2,500 meters. Flowering from June to September, this plant produces small greenish-white flowers in dense terminal and axillary clusters. Growing 16 to 65 centimeters tall with erect, simple or branched stems, it develops an upright, somewhat open form. Its thin leaves are elliptic to lanceolate, 1.5 to 4.2 centimeters long, typically with one or two shallow lobes near the base and appearing powdery white underneath. The fruit is a small, shiny black seed, horizontally positioned and finely wrinkled.

Habitat: Open, dry places

Bloom period: Jun-Sep

Elevation: < 2500 m

Bioregions: CaR, SN, GV, e SnFrB, SCoR, WTR, SNE, D

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