Probst's Goosefoot - Chenopodium probstii
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Species Description
A rare casual birdseed or grain alien from North America but is probably overlooked. Habitat includes: tips, wasteland, spoil heaps, arable fields etc.
Stace 4:
Chenopodium probstii Aellen - Probst's Goosefoot.
Like C. album but often to 2m; stems and leaves usually tinged reddish-purple; lower leaves usually with distinct basal lobe on each side, sharply toothed; tepals slightly keeled abaxially; (2n=54). Neophyte-casual; tips and waste places from wool, birdseed, soyabean and other sources; scattered in England, Scotland and Jersey, formerly rarely more or less naturalised in West Kent; North America.
Key:
- Stems herbaceous; branchlets not bare and spinose at tips
- Flowers in racemes or panicles of heads usually <5mm across; perianth not turning red and succulent at fruiting
- Annual; stigmas <0.8mm
- Fruiting perianths wider than long, with horizontal seeds; inflorescence mealy or glabrous
- Leaves cuneate at junction with petiole
- Seeds with subacute to rounded unkeeled edges; tepals entire
- At least lower leaves distinctly toothed and/or lobed
- At least flowers and small branchlets conspicuously mealy; leaves various
- Testa irregularly pitted to almost featureless, often with radial and/or tangential furrows, sometimes with regular reticulum or slightly raised ridges but with flat (not concave) areas within
- Plant usually less robust, if >1.5m leaves <6cm; plant green or variously red-tinged or -striped, but not with young shoots extensively reddened
- Pericarp smooth to granulose or irregularly papillose; seeds ≤1.5mm in longest diameter, <1.5mm in shortest diameter
- Leaves distinctly longer than wide; tepals usually fused <1/2 way; inflorescence variously mealy
- Leaves various but not with parallel sides, usually acute; seeds with ratio of longest to shortest diameters usually <1.15
- Seeds with obtuse to rounded edges as seen in narrowest profile
- Plant often >1m, frequently tinged with red; seeds usually <1.25mm in longest diameter but flowering very late, usually frosted before seeding; tepals slightly keeled
Useful Links:
Online Atlas of the British and Irish Flora
FLORON Verspreidingsatlas Vaatplanten