Lamb's quarters

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Lamb's quarters leaf

Lamb's quarters

Lamb's quarters

Lamb's quarters

Morphology

Stem

Erect, solitary, little- to much-branched, glabrous or white-mealy, grooved, often with reddish or pale green stripes; branches ascending.

Leaves

Alternate, simple, mostly long-stalked, variable, rhombic to ovate-triangular or lanceolate, 1.2 to 4 inches long, .8 to 1.6 inches wide; upper surface glabrous or covered with mealy white powder; lower surface more densely white-mealy; margins irregularly toothed or wavy to entire; tips pointed; uppermost leaves linear or narrowly lanceolate, often conspicuously white-mealy.

Inflorescence

Clusters, compact, dense, usually arranged in interrupted or continuous panicle-like spikes, terminal or in leaf axils, ascending at maturity, occasionally spreading.

Flower

Small, inconspicuous, about 1/10 inch across, greenish, sessile; sepals 5, lobes bluntly pointed, densely covered with white mealy powder, enclosing mature fruit; petals absent; stamens 5.

Fruit

Tiny, 1-seeded, lightly roughened; seeds lens- to disk-shaped, 1/16 inch in diameter, black, shiny.

Ecology

Habitat

Open disturbed areas, cultivated and fallow fields, stream banks, pastures, gardens, and old homesteads; disturbed soils.

Distribution

East 2/3 of Kansas.

Practical Information

Toxicity

May accumulate nitrates and be poisonous to livestock.

Uses

Many Native American tribes used lamb's quarters as a food source. They used it raw or boiled as greens to prevent scurvy and cooked the leaves and stems with beans to reduce intestinal gas. The seeds were ground and used to make mush and bread. A tea brewed from the plant was used as a wash for sore limbs and taken for diarrhea. A poultice of the plant was applied to burns. Livestock and deer eat the young plants. Song birds and mourning doves eat the seeds.

Additional Notes