The Manual of the Botany of the Northern United States - Part 143
Library

Part 143

8. Suaeda. Embryo flat-spiral. Calyx wingless. Leaves succulent.

9. Salsola. Embryo conical-spiral. Calyx in fruit horizontally winged.

Leaves spinescent.

1. CYCLOLMA, Moquin. WINGED PIGWEED.

Flowers perfect or pistillate, bractless. Calyx 5-cleft, with the concave lobes strongly keeled, enclosing the depressed fruit, at length appendaged with a broad and continuous horizontal scarious wing. Stamens 5. Styles 3 (rarely 2). Seed horizontal, flat; coats crustaceous. Embryo encircling the mealy alb.u.men.--An annual and much-branched coa.r.s.e herb, with alternate sinuate-toothed petioled leaves, and very small scattered sessile flowers in open panicles. (Name composed of ??????, _a circle_, and ??a, _a border_, from the encircling wing of the calyx.)

1. C. platyphllum, Moquin.--Diffuse (6--15' high), more or less arachnoid-p.u.b.escent or glabrate, light green or often deep purple.--Sandy soil, Minn, to W. Ill., S. Ind., Ark., and westward across the plains.

2. KCHIA, Roth.

Characters nearly as in Cycloloma, but the seed-coat membranaceous and the alb.u.men wanting.--Annuals or suffruticose perennials, with flat or more usually linear and terete leaves. (Named for _W. D. J. Koch_, a German botanist.)

K. SCOPaRIA, Schrad. Annual, erect, p.u.b.erulent or glabrate, branching; leaves narrowly lanceolate to linear; flowers in small axillary cl.u.s.ters, sessile, each sepal developing a thick wing.--Sparingly introduced; Vt., Ont., and Ill. (Nat. from Eu.)

3. CHENOPDIUM, Tourn. GOOSEFOOT. PIGWEED.

Flowers perfect, all bractless. Calyx 5- (rarely 4-) parted or lobed, unchanged in fruit or becoming succulent and berry-like, more or less enveloping the depressed fruit. Stamens mostly 5; filaments filiform.

Styles 2, rarely 3. Seed horizontal or vertical, lenticular; the coat crustaceous; embryo coiled partly or fully round the mealy alb.u.men.--Weeds, usually with a white mealiness, or glandular. Flowers sessile in small cl.u.s.ters collected in spiked panicles. (Named from ???, _a goose_, and p???, _foot_, in allusion to the shape of the leaves.)--Our species are mostly annuals, flowering through late summer and autumn, growing around dwellings, in manured soil, cultivated grounds, and waste places.

-- 1. _Annual, more or less mealy, not glandular nor aromatic; fruiting calyx dry; seed horizontal; embryo a complete ring._

[*] _Pericarp very easily separated from the seed; leaves entire or rarely sinuate-dentate._

1. C. Boscianum, Moq. Erect, slender (2 high), loosely branched, often _nearly glabrous; leaves oblong- to linear-lanceolate_ (1--2' long), attenuate into a _slender petiole_, acute, the lower sinuate-dentate or often all entire; flowers small, solitary or in small cl.u.s.ters upon the slender branchlets; _calyx not strongly carinate_. (C. alb.u.m, var.

Boscianum, _Gray_, Manual.)--N. Y. to Minn., south to N. C. and Tex.

2. C. leptoph?llum, Nutt. _Densely mealy_ or rarely nearly glabrous (--1 high), simple or branched, often strict; _leaves linear_ (--1'

long), entire, _rather shortly petioled_; flowers closely cl.u.s.tered, in dense or interrupted spikelets; _calyx-lobes strongly carinate_.--Sea-coast, Conn. to N. J., north sh.o.r.e of L. Erie, and from Dak. to Col., N. Mex., and westward.

[*][*] _Pericarp persistent upon the smooth seed; leaves more or less sinuate-dentate (except in_ C. polyspermum).

C. POLYSPeRMUM, L. Low, often spreading, green and _wholly dest.i.tute of mealiness; leaves all entire_, oblong or ovate and on slender petioles; flowers very small, in slender panicles in all the axils, the thin lobes of the calyx very incompletely enclosing the fruit; seed obtuse-edged.--Sparingly naturalized in the Eastern States. (Adv. from Eu.)

C. aLb.u.m, L. (LAMB'S-QUARTERS. PIGWEED.) Erect (1--4 high), _more or less mealy; leaves varying from rhombic-ovate to lanceolate_ or the uppermost even linear, acute, _all or only the lower more or less angulate-toothed_; cl.u.s.ters spiked-panicled, mostly dense; calyx ("

wide in fruit) with strongly carinate lobes, nearly or quite covering the seed.--Introduced everywhere. (Nat. from Eu.)--Var. ViRIDE, Moq., more common eastward, is less mealy and with less dense inflorescence.

C. uRBIc.u.m, L. Rather pale or dull green, nearly dest.i.tute of mealiness, with erect branches (1--3 high); _leaves_ triangular, acute, _coa.r.s.ely and sharply many-toothed; spikes erect, crowded in a long and narrow racemose panicle_; calyx-lobes not keeled; _seed with rounded margins_.--Apparently throughout our range. (Nat. from Eu.)

C. MURaLE, L. Resembles the preceding, but less erect, loosely branched (1--2 high); _leaves rhomboid-ovate_, acute, _coa.r.s.ely and sharply unequally toothed_, thin, bright green; _spikes or racemes diverging, somewhat corymbed_; calyx-lobes scarcely keeled; _seed sharp-edged_.--From N. Eng. to Mich, and Mo. (Adv. from Eu.)

3. C. hbridum, L. (MAPLE-LEAVED GOOSEFOOT.) Bright green throughout; stem widely much branched (2--4 high); _leaves thin_ (2--6' long), somewhat triangular and heart shaped, taper-pointed, _sinuate-angled_, the angles extending into a _few large and pointed teeth_; racemes diffusely and loosely panicled, leafless; calyx not fully covering the fruit, its lobes keeled.--Indigenous from western N. Y. and Ky., westward across the continent; introduced eastward.

-- 2. _Annual or perennial herbs, somewhat mealy, not glandular-p.u.b.escent; fruiting calyx dry; seed large, subglobose, vertical, exserted; embryo a complete ring._

C. GLAuc.u.m, L. (OAK-LEAVED GOOSEFOOT.) _Low_ (5--12' high), _spreading, glaucous-mealy; leaves sinuately pinnatifid-toothed_, oblong, obtuse, pale green above; _cl.u.s.ters in axillary spikes_, small; _seed sharp-edged_.--Throughout our range and westward. (Nat. from Eu.)

C. BONUS-HENRCUS, L. (GOOD-KING-HENRY.) _Stout, erect_ (1--2 high), mostly simple; _leaves broadly triangular-hastate_ (2--3' long), obtuse or acute, _subsinuate or entire; flowers somewhat densely paniculately spiked; seed with obtuse edges_. (Blitum Bonus-Henricus, _Reichenb._)--Sparingly introduced. (Adv. from Eu.)

-- 3. _Annual, glabrous; calyx more or less fleshy in fruit and often colored, enclosing the utricle; seed mostly vertical; embryo a complete ring; flowers in crowded cl.u.s.ters, axillary or in spikes._

4. C. rubrum, L. (COAST BLITE.) Stem angled, much branched; leaves thickish, triangular-lanceolate, tapering below into a wedge-shaped base and above into a slender point, sparingly and coa.r.s.ely toothed, the upper linear-lanceolate; _cl.u.s.ters scattered in axillary leafy spikes; calyx-lobes 2--4, rather fleshy_; stamens 1--2; seed shining, the margin acute. (Blitum maritimum, _Nutt._)--Sea-coast of Northern States, and in saline places to Minn. (Eu.)

5. C. capitatum, Watson. (STRAWBERRY BLITE.) Stem ascending, branching; leaves triangular and somewhat halberd-shaped, sinuate-toothed; _cl.u.s.ters simple (large), interruptedly spiked, the upper leafless; stamens 1--5; calyx berry-like_ in fruit; seed ovoid, flattish, smooth, with a very narrow margin. (Blitum capitatum, _L._)--Dry rich ground, along the Great Lakes, northward and westward. The calyx becomes pulpy and bright red in fruit, when the large cl.u.s.ters look like strawberries.

(Eu.)

-- 4. _Annual, not mealy, but more or less glandular-p.u.b.escent, aromatic; calyx 2--3-parted, dry in fruit; seed often vertical; embryo not a complete ring._

C. BTRYS, L. (JERUSALEM OAK. FEATHER GERANIUM.) Glandular-p.u.b.escent and viscid; _leaves slender-petioled_, oblong, obtuse, sinuate-pinnatifid; _racemes cymose-diverging, loose, leafless_; fruit not perfectly enclosed.--Widely introduced. (Nat. from Eu.)

C. AMBROSIODES, L. (MEXICAN TEA.) Smoothish; _leaves slightly petioled_, oblong or lanceolate, repand-toothed or nearly entire, the upper tapering to both ends; _spikes densely flowered, leafy_, or intermixed with leaves; fruit perfectly enclosed in the calyx.--Waste places, common throughout our range, especially southward. (Nat. from Trop. Amer.)

Var. ANTHELMiNTIc.u.m, Gray. (WORMSELD.) Leaves more strongly toothed, the lower sometimes almost laciniate-pinnatifid; _spikes more elongated, mostly leafless_.--From Long Island and southward, west to Wisc. and Tex. (Nat. from Trop. Amer.)

4. ROUBIeVA, Moquin.

Flowers minute, perfect or pistillate, solitary or 2--3 together in the axils. Calyx urceolate, 3--5-toothed, becoming enlarged and saccate, contracted at the apex and enclosing the fruit. Stamens 5, included; styles 3, exserted. Fruit membranaceous, compressed, glandular-dotted.

Seed vertical. Embryo annular.--Perennial glandular herb, with alternate pinnatifid leaves.

R. MULTiFIDA, Moq. Prostrate or ascending, branching and leafy; leaves lanceolate to linear (--1' long), deeply pinnatifid with narrow lobes; fruiting calyx obovate. (Chenopodium multifidum, _L._)--Sparingly introduced in the Atlantic States. (Adv. from S. Amer.)

5. aTRIPLEX, Tourn. ORACHE.

Flowers moncious or dicious; the staminate like the flowers of Chenopodium, but sterile by the abortion of the pistil; the fertile consisting simply of a naked pistil enclosed between a pair of appressed foliaceous bracts, which are enlarged in fruit, and sometimes united.

Seed vertical. Embryo coiled into a ring around the alb.u.men. In one section, including the Garden Orache, there are some fertile flowers with a calyx, like the staminate, but without stamens, and with horizontal seeds.--Herbs (ours annuals) usually mealy or scurfy with bran-like scales, with spiked-cl.u.s.tered flowers; in summer and autumn.

(The ancient Latin name, a corruption of the Greek, ?t??fa???.)

A. RSEUM, L. h.o.a.ry-mealy; leaves short-petioled or the upper sessile, rhombic-ovate or oblong with a wedge-shaped base, coa.r.s.ely sinuate-toothed; fertile flowers mostly cl.u.s.tered in the axils; fruiting bracts broad, often cut-toothed and warty.--Sparingly introduced at the east. (Adv. from Eu.)

1. A. patulum, L. Erect or prostrate (1--4 high), dark green and glabrous or somewhat scurfy; leaves narrowly lanceolate hastate (1--4'

long), the lower sometimes opposite, entire or sparingly sinuate-dentate, petioled, the upper lanceolate to linear; flowers cl.u.s.tered in rather slender spikes, the two kinds together or separate; fruiting bracts ovate-triangular or rhombic-hastate, entire or toothed, often muricate on the back, united to near the middle.--Very variable.

The typical form scarcely occurs except as naturalized from Europe.--Var. HASTaTUM, Gray. Erect or spreading, stout, at least the lower leaves broadly triangular-hastate, often coa.r.s.ely and irregularly toothed. Salt and brackish places, on the coast from Can. to Va., along the Great Lakes, and far westward.--Var. LITTORaLE, Gray. Slender; leaves linear-lanceolate to linear, rarely subhastate or toothed. Canada to N. J., and westward along the Great Lakes.--Var. SUBSPICaTUM, Watson.

A low erect and often simple form (3--12' high), usually quite scurfy; leaves lanceolate-hastate (--1' long). Minn. to central Kan., and westward.

2. A. arenarium, Nutt. _Silvery-mealy_, diffusely spreading; leaves oblong, narrowed at base, nearly sessile; fruiting bracts broadly wedge-shaped, united, 3-nerved, 2--5 toothed at the summit, and usually strongly muricate and reticulate on the sides.--Sandy beaches, along the coast, Ma.s.s. to Fla.

3. A. argenteum, Nutt. Usually low, much branched, gray-scurfy, leafy; leaves deltoid or subrhombic, often subhastate; staminate flowers in terminal spikes; fruiting bracts round-rhombic, indurated, united, the free margins more or less dilated and deeply toothed, the sides variously appendaged.--Red River Valley, Minn., south and westward.

6. CORISPeRMUM, A. Juss. BUG-SEED.

Flowers perfect, single and sessile in the axils of the upper leaves reduced to bracts, usually forming a spike. Calyx of a single delicate sepal on the inner side. Stamens 1 or 2, rarely 5. Styles 2. Fruit oval, flat, with the outer face rather convex and the inner concave, sharp-margined, a _caryopsis_, i.e. the thin pericarp adherent to the vertical seed. Embryo slender, coiled around a central alb.u.men.--Low branching annuals, with narrow linear alternate 1-nerved leaves. (Name formed of ?????, _a bug_, and sp??a, _seed_.)