Professional Documents
Culture Documents
weeds.
Chenopodium album L.
lamb'squarters (Canada Weed Committee 1969),
grasses,
l97l).
Chenopodiaceae, goosefoot family,
Ch6nopodiac6es.
green
or
plants
monoecious; flowers perfect, clustered in
contiguous glomerules, 5-merous, farinose
to glabrous, perianth basally united, clasping and nearly enclosing the mature fruit
Guisti (1964).
Aellen (1929) recognized 34 subspecies,
varieties. and forms of C. album in North
America. Abrams (1944) concluded that all
these taxa were minor variants of C. album.
C. album is often confused with a number
l06l
r062
Canada are
andCromptonlg7l),andC. strictumRoth
var. glaucophyllum (Aellen) Wahl, n : 18
or 2n : 36 (Bassett and Crompton l97l;
Keener 1970). An enor (2n : I 8) was
printed for the chromosome count of this
glaucophyllum(Fig.2B),withtheirshallow
serrate leaves, can be separated from the
seedlings of C. album (Fig. 2A). At
zschackei and C. strictum var. glaucophyllum by the features detailed in the following
key:
(1971).
Seedlings of C. album (Fig. 2A) and C.
distinguished
from C. berlandieri
similar
with adherent reticulate or honeycombed pericarp, showing a yellow
A. Seeds
are
very
ssp.
area
(stylopodium) around the base of the style, circular (Fig. 3, C and D.), radicle not
prominent; calyx-lobes (perianth parts) very prominently keeled along the center, not
. . . . . .C. berlandieri ssp. zschackei
covering the achenes
A. Seeds with non-adherent or adherent non-reticulate pericarp without a yellow
stylopodium, oval or circular (Fig. 3,A,B,E,F), with or without a prominent radicle;
perianth parts normally not strongly keeled, covering the achenes
B. Seeds circular, averaging 1.2 mm wide by 1.3 mm long (Fig. 3, A.); pericarp easy
or difficult to remove, testa marked by faint reticulations or striations (2OX), radicle
not prominent and only shallowly notched (flowering late May to late Aulust) . . . . .
C. album
B.
remove, testa smooth (20X), radicle prominent and deeply notched (flowering late
. . .C. strictum var. glaucophyllum
August to late October) . . .
ssp. zschackei
1063
ALBUM L
1. Lamb's
IiS.
Frankton
1064
causes summer
r97 r).
(b) Beneficial
hay fever
(Wodehouse
many
species of North American birds (Martin et
anthelmintic
ex-
(c) Legislation
Lamb's-quarters has been
weed by the provinces
designated a noxious
Alberta
0, 1973).
4. Geographical Distribution
Lamb's-quarters occurs in all provinces of
Canada,
l9'7
the
al.1977).
5. Habitat
Where C.
annual
the
average
in
Canada,
occurs
album
precipitation varies from 30 to 325 cm and
the snow cover from 0 to 76 cm; the
growing season ranges from 160 to 200
days and the degree days above 42"F range
from I ,500 to 3,500 (Anonymous 1974).
Fig.
(b) Substratun
strongly acid
to
alkaline;
it grows in
(Williams 1963).
Communities in which the species
occurs Lamb's-quarters is an anthropophilic plant, usually found growing
in association with other weeds in disturbed
open habitats. It is often found in construction sites and gravel pits. It does not usually
grow in natural situations such as native
(c)
Fig.
3A,B.
ALBUM L.
065
6. History
The monographer of the Chenopodiaceae
family, Moquind-Tandon (1840, 1849),
considered lamb's-quarters a weed of agriculture throughout temperate regions.
Standley (1916) could not decide upon its
origin. C. album is the most common
species of this genus occurring in Canada.
The earliest herbarium collections in CAN
and DAO (Holmgren and Keuken 1974)
were taken in 1858, 1887, 1891, 1895,
1896, and 1898.
ssp. zschackei.
l 066
"florigen," to be
mature leaves.
percentages
of
(black)
thicker testa than the occasional brownreticulate, non-dormant seeds that are produced under short days. Cumming (1963)
also demonstrated that C. album can
germinate over a wider range of conditions
than the less weedy species of tle genus.
Dormancy factors contribute to the success
of C. album as a weed.
(b) Perennation
Lamb's-quarters,
an
Cumming (1963)
responses by
found different germination
lamb's-quarters to the ratio of red, far-red
light.
When plants were exposed to an abrupt
shift in day length from long to shorter
days, Gifford and Stewart (1965) found that
C.
dormancy.
C. album has been shown by Pandy et al.
(19'11) to take up large amounts of phosphate at early and late stages of its growth
cycle. Allebone et al. (1970) found that the
leaf surface waxes of C. album contained 13
...Chenopodiumtlbum
r-\+
t/
= 0)
)_Y
ry
hnandieri $P u*h-lei
srtic1lnvt st u..p6v|tun
'/////c
-Lim'tsorC
\'\
q\
-ri'
(d) Phenology
Plants
lamb's-quafters
- during offield
were examined
surveys in
southern portions of Canada and from
t06'7
seven
inflorescences.
(b)
Lamb's-quarters
has no
obvious
l7-h photo-
8. Reproduction
ALBUM L.
The flowers of
1068
conditiens
of
for 20 yr.
(d) Vegetative reproduction
Lamb's-
9. Hybrids
There is no evidence in the current botanical
quarters.
Ervio
Over the experiment's duration the population density did not affect seed weight. At a
density
210,800 seeds/m2.
Williams (1963) presented an analysis of
the frequency of C. album in various
habitats in Britain. Its highest frequency
was on cultivated calcareous and occasionally non-calcareous soils. It rarely occurs as
a single plant because its non-specialized
mode
of
and
plasts
of
not in
chloroplasts
selection.
12. Response to Other Human
Manipulations
Chenopodium album is unable to withstand
Aeolothrips fasciatus
Scrobipalpa ab-
Atiplex
spp.).
Conners
occurring
on C. album: Cercoipora-dubia (Riess)
Wint., Diplodia ellisii Sacc., varioui
(Fr.)
ALBUM L.
1069
Farl.
Nematodes: Ditylenchus dipsaci (Kuehn)
Pratylenchus
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
We thank the herbarium curators of the following institutions for lending us specimens of
fl', Phoma longissima (Pers.) west, AAMISEPP, A. lgi6. weed control in potaroes
Physoderma pulposum Wallr., Puccinia and sugar beet. Swed. Weed
Conf. (SyDCA)
aristidae Tracy, Septoria spp., Stagono- lTtD_iO,D_32.
1070
L.
ABRAMS,
du
l9-
160.
ALLEBONE,
J. 8., HAMILTON, R.
J.'
Part
II.
t-20.
as
noxious
147 173.
Department of
75. l04pp.
BANDEEN, J. D. and McLAREN, R' D. 1976.
Resistance of Chenopodium album to triazine
herbicides. Can. J. Plant Sci. 56:
4ll-412.
weeds.
Chenopodium. Trans.
50:
603-607.
CANADA WEED COMMITTEE. 1969. Common and botanical names of weeds in Canada.
Can. Dep. Agric. Publ. 1397.67 PP'
CONNERS, l. L. 1967. An annotated index of
plant diseases in Canada. Can. Dep. Agric. Res.
PP.
4l: l2ll-1233.
In A.
Chenopodium album
L'
Weed Res.
ll:
124-
134.
GUISTI,
L.
Chenopodium album
winiana 13: 486-505.
L. en Argentina'
Dar-
potassium nitrate and temperature on the germination of Chenopodium album. Weed Res' 10:
27-39.
HERRON, J. W. 1953. Study of seed production, seed identification and seed germinition of
C-henopodium spp. Cornell Univ. Agric. Exp.
Sta. Mem.320:24pp.
HERWEIJER, C. H. and DEN HOUTER, L. F.
Control Conf.649-654.
Press
pp.
609
l.
HOMSHER,
P. J. 1967. Cytological
and
of
Chenopodium
L.
195 |
500 pp.
MOQUIN-TANDON,
Salsolaceae.
t07l
ALBUM L.
In De
Bot.50: 1767-1771.
SOUZA MACHADO,
Hill
reaction
of
407-413.
STANDLEY,
flora.
784-794.
TAYLOR, R. L. and MULLIGAN, c. A. 1968.
Flora of the Queen Charlotte Islands. Res. Br.,
4,
part 2.
by foliar
canopies;
r072
significance
for light
controlled weed
seed
W. V.
l.
WENTLAND,
l0-l13.
M. J.
117 pp.
5: l4l-150.
WISK, E. L. and COLE, R. H. 1966. Effect of
date of application of two pre-plant herbicides
on weed control and crop injury in soybeans.
Northeast. Weed. Conf. Proc' 21st Annu.
Meeting pp.366-367 .
WODEHOUSE, R. P. 1971. Hay fever plants.
Ed. 2. Hafner Publ. Co., New York, N'Y. 280
pp.