Chenopodium watsonii

Watson's goosefoot

Family: Chenopodiaceae · Type: annual · Native

Watson's goosefoot is a California native annual found in the southern Coast Ranges in woodland and scrub habitats at elevations below 3,200 meters. Flowering from July to October, this plant produces small powdery flowers in leafy clusters with ovate sepals. Growing with erect or ascending stems 10 to 45 centimeters tall that are branched at the base and have a distinctive scent, it develops a compact, rounded form. Its leaves are broadly rounded-ovate or diamond-shaped, 10 to 26 millimeters long, with entire or slightly toothed edges and a powdery surface on both sides. The fruit is small, approximately 1 to 1.3 millimeters in diameter, with a white wall deeply pitted and enclosing a horizontal seed.

Habitat: Woodland, scrub

Bloom period: Jul-Oct

Elevation: < 3200 m

Bioregions: SnGb

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