Chenopodium incognitum
{{Short description|Species of flowering plant}}
{{Speciesbox
|image =
|genus = Chenopodium
|species = incognitum
|authority = Wahl
}}
Chenopodium incognitum is a species of annual flowering plant in the family Amaranthaceae. It is difficult to tell apart from Chenopodium hians and Chenopodium atrovirens is often synonymized with one of those species by botanical authorities.
Description
Chenopodium incognitum is an annual herb growing about 30–120 centimeters in height. It branches from its base with the side stems arching upward in a bow shape. The leaves are narrow and ovate to deltoid-ovate, egg shaped to somewhat more triangular, and 1.5–3.5–centimeters in length. The leaves of C. incognitum lack lobes or have only a few small lobes at their base with a mealy or dusty powder on their undersides.{{cite web |title=Chenopodium incognitum |url=https://plants.sdsu.edu/chenopodium/C_incognitum/index.html |website=Plants SDSU |publisher=San Diego State University |access-date=13 July 2023}}
The flowers are tightly packed spikes that are found both at the ends of its stems and where the plant branches. Each flower have five dusty to mealy (farinose) sepals. After blooming the sepals half cover the seeds at their maturity. The when fully ripe seed is black, flattened, with a rounded margin, and 1.2–1.5 millimeters in diameter. The pericarp starts out dark with yellow or golden spots, but as it ages it becomes brown or dark red with cream yellow spots.
Taxonomy
Chenopodium incognitum was first scientifically described and named by Herbert Alexander Wahl in 1916. It is currently recognized as a valid species by Plants of the World Online (POWO).{{cite POWO |id=56140-2 |title=Chenopodium incognitum |access-date=13 July 2023}} It is synonomized with Chenopodium atrovirens by World Flora Online{{cite web |last1=WFO |title=Chenopodium incognitum Wahl |url=http://worldfloraonline.org/taxon/wfo-0000601422 |website=World Flora Online |access-date=13 July 2023 |date=2023}} and with Chenopodium hians by Flora of North America.{{cite web |last1=Clemants |first1=Steven E. |last2=Mosyakin |first2=Sergei L. |title=Chenopodium hians - FNA |url=http://beta.floranorthamerica.org/Chenopodium_hians |website=Flora of North America |access-date=13 July 2023 |date=5 November 2020}}
Range
According to POWO Chenopodium incognitum is native to and grows from the Yukon territory in the north south all the way to New Mexico. Including the Yukon, British Columbia, Alberta, and Saskatchewan in Canada. In the United States it grows in Arizona, Colorado, Montana, Nevada, New Mexico, Utah, and Wyoming.
References
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Category:Flora of British Columbia