Chenopodium pumilio
Click on each image to see a larger version and details of the record (Click here to see images of this plant from Kyffhäuser)
Image 1
Habit
27 Apr 2021
Image 2
Leafy stems
27 Apr 2021
Image 3
Habit
27 Apr 2021
Image 4
Leafy stems
27 Apr 2021
| Family: | Chenopodiaceae |
| Full name: | Chenopodium pumilio R.Br. |
| ID status: | Fairly certain |
| Afrikaans common name(s): | - |
| English common name(s): | Clammy goosefoot |
| Synonym(s): | - |
| Status: | Alien |
| Description: | Annual herb, prostrate or ascending, with numerous usually slender simple to much branched stems 2–45 cm. long radiating from rootstock, green rarely red-tinged, pubescent and glandular, aromatic. Leaves elliptic to lanceolate in outline, small, mostly 0.3–2.7 cm. long and 0.2–1.3 cm. wide, with 2–4 (–5) usually coarse sometimes obscure teeth or lobes on each margin, rarely (on depauperate plants) entire or almost so, glands between veins on lower side of leaves sessile to subsessile, not or only sometimes accompanied by glandular hairs except on veins. Flowers greenish, minute, about 0.4–0.75 mm. in diameter, sessile or subsessile in small rounded axillary clusters at most of the nodes. Sepals 4–5, sessile-glandular especially below, and more or less pubescent above, not at all keeled, but in fruit becoming rounded-convex on back outside and often whitish or pallid. Stamen 1. Pericarp easily scraped off seed. Seeds (Fig. 2/9, p. 3) all "vertical" (laterally compressed), deep red-brown, shining, 0.5–0.75 mm. in diameter, bluntly or sharply keeled; testa under microscope almost smooth. (from JSTOR Global Plants website / Flora of Tropical East Africa) Stems prostrate to suberect, much-branched to ± simple, 0.1–4.5 dm, pilose with segmented (uniseriate) hairs and sessile or stipitate glandular hairs. Leaves malodorous; petiole 0.3–1.5 cm; blade narrowly to broadly elliptic to ovate, 0.5–2.7 × 0.3–1.5 cm, somewhat reduced in inflorescence, base cuneate, apex obtuse, glandular-pilose. Inflorescences lateral cymes or glomerules; glomerules subglobose, 1.2–2.5 mm diam.; bracts leaflike, 3–4.5 mm, elliptic, margins crenate-dentate, apex obtuse. Flowers: perianth segments 5, distinct nearly to base, distinct portions narrowly elliptic to narrowly oblong, 0.6–0.7 × 0.2–0.3 mm, apex acute, normally rounded abaxially, usually glandular-pilosulose, becoming crustaceous and white in fruit; stamens absent or 1; stigmas 2. Achenes ovoid; pericarp adherent, membranaceous, slightly rugose. Seeds reddish brown, ovoid, 0.5–0.7 × 0.5–0.6 mm, margins keeled or rounded; seed coat smooth. (from JSTOR Global Plants website / Flora of North America) Dysphania pumilio is morphologically close to D. carinata, another alien species from Australia that is widely distributed in southern Africa (e.g. in Namibia). It is easily distinguished from the latter species by smooth perianth segments that lack a keel. (from Chorological and taxonomic notes on African plants 3, Alexander P. Sukhorukov, et al, Botany Letters, 165:2, 2018) Prostrate or procumbent, often greyish, aromatic annual with branches to c. 50 cm long. Leaves and stems variable covered with twisted septate and subsessile short glandular hairs. Leaves petiolate, ovate to obovate, 5–20 mm long, 3–10 mm wide, margins sinuate to shallowly lobed. Flowers female or bisexual, in small axillary clusters; tepals 5, shortly united at base, often thickening and becoming pale and prominently rounded dorsally with maturity; stamen solitary or absent; pericarp membranous, closely adherent to seed. Seed erect, c. 0.5 mm diam., dark red-brown, remaining enclosed by fruiting perianth when shed. Flowers mostly Dec.–May. (from Flora of Victoria website) |
| Link(s) |
African Plant Database
JSTOR Plant Science Kew Herbarium Catalogue BGBM Berlin-Dahlem - Virtual Herbarium Züricher Herbarien iNaturalist (Namibia / Alex Dreyer) iNaturalist (Namibia) iNaturalist (southern Africa) Flora of Zimbabwe Fleurs de notre Terre - Galerie Namibie Tree Atlas of Namibia |
| Content last updated: | 18 Apr 2024 |
