Cycloloma atriplicifolium

Winged pigweed

Family: Chenopodiaceae · Type: annual · Not Native

Winged pigweed is a naturalized annual found in the Great Valley, southern Southern California Coast, western Peninsula Ranges, and Desert Mountains in fields and disturbed sandy areas at elevations below 1,250 meters. Flowering from May to September, this plant produces tiny inconspicuous flowers in open terminal panicle-like clusters. Growing with spreading, slender stems 12 to 75 centimeters tall that become increasingly branched and rounded, it develops gradually reduced lanceolate to ovate leaves with wavy-toothed edges. Its leaves initially appear shaggy-hairy but become smoother with age, ranging from 5 to 65 millimeters long with short petioles. The distinctive fruit is round-winged, enclosing a single dull black, lens-shaped seed about 1.5 to 2 millimeters in diameter.

Habitat: Fields, disturbed areas, generally sandy

Bloom period: May-Sep

Elevation: < 1250 m

Bioregions: GV, s SCo, w PR, DMoj

California counties: San Diego, Merced, San Bernardino, San Joaquin, Orange, Riverside, Los Angeles, Yolo, Sutter, Colusa, Butte, Glenn, Tehama, Calaveras, Monterey

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