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Flowers
Tiny flowers are tightly packed in small round clusters (glomerules) in spike-like and branching arrangements at the top of the stem, at the tips of branching stems, and arising from upper leaf axils, with the glomerules usually crowded on the branch. Within a glomerule, flowers may be at different stages of development, some just budding and others with maturing fruit. Flowers lack petals, have 5 stamens and a round, green ovary with a 2-parted style at the tip that is not divided all the way to the base. Cupping the flower is a green calyx with 5 lobes .5 to 1.5 mm long, triangular to egg-shaped, strongly keeled, blunt to rounded at the tip, thin and papery around the edges. Bracts are leaf-like or sometimes absent. The calyx, stalks and branches are moderately to densely white-mealy.

Leaves and Stems
Leaves are alternate, ½ to 6 inches long, up to 3½ inches wide, variable in shape, diamond-shaped to triangular to egg-shaped to lance-elliptic in outline, pointed to blunt at the tip, wedge-shaped to straight across at the base, tapering to a stalk up to 3½ inches long. Lower leaves are largest, irregularly toothed, 1½ to 2+ times as long as wide, usually with a pair of shallow lobes near the base. Leaves become smaller and less toothy as they ascend the stem with the uppermost leaves often much narrower, proportionately longer, and toothless.

Surfaces are green, hairless, moderately to densely white-mealy especially when young, the upper surface usually becoming smooth, the lower surface usually remaining white-mealy. Stems are erect to ascending, unbranched to much branched, sparsely to densely white-mealy especially on the upper stem, and green to purple striped to red.

Climate & Soil Requirements
Chenopodium Berlandieri is an extremely versatile plant; it can handle a variety of elevations, commonly found growing at sea level and at 10000 ft elevation such as in the San Juan mountains of Colorado. In the Andes of South America, there are varieties of lambsquarter that grows at over 12000 ft. It is very cold hardy and therefore one of the later weeds to be killed by frost. It dislikes shade. When exposed to full sun conditions, the plants tend to be robust with many lateral branches producing high quantities of seed. Plants growing in shaded conditions tend to be more gracile, taller, with fewer lateral branches and produce less seed.

They thrive in all types of soil with varying pH levels. When the soil is fertile, it will grow large and full in size and form very attractive stands of vegetation. The presence of a stand of healthy lambsquarter is one of the best indicators for vital soil. However, it can also handle the worst of soils and has been known to even survive in disturbed soils such as annual vegetable gardens, neglected fields, even coal-pit heaps. Chenopodium Berlandieri, like its other relatives also makes a fantastic cover crop and natural fertilizer because of its dense nutrient content.

Sowing
C. Berlandieri is a self-seeding annual plant. It grows easily from seed and does not require orderly cultivation. The seeds themselves can stay dormant for many years and take root when the conditions are ideal. The species is hermaphroditic, having both male and female organs on the same plant. They are pollinated by the wind and is known to cross-pollinate with C. Album to create a hybrid. The plant is in flower from July to October; the flowers are greenish. From August to October, the seeds ripen.

Harvesting
C. berlandieri is an elusive subject for harvest yield experiments; the floodplain weeds with their miniscule seeds are difficult to harvest relative to other resources. High costs are associated with its harvesting due to the minute size of its oily seeds, which although occurring in vast numbers, size makes collecting enough seeds for the daily or long-term subsistence needs of an individual or group challenging. The relative cost of procurement and processing in quantities sufficient for a meal has been a limiting factor in their use throughout history and domestication has had little impact on reducing overall handling costs.

Future Potential as Medicine
Chenopodium berlandieri is a prime candidate for additional research, especially its prospects for utility in the medicinal model. Long-term use of this plant makes little sense when judged in strict terms of subsistence. C. berlandieri shares some qualities with its medicinally useful relatives such as Chenopodium ambrosioides which is a widely known vermifuge and a potential food preservative. This makes its potential medicinal value a real possibility. Its chemical constituents and possible medicinal properties have only been briefly examined in the anthropological and botanical literature. Historians believe that early foraging people in Eastern North America most likely originally saw value in its leaves, not its seeds. This perspective avoids the problems associated with the inefficiency of harvesting and processing the plant’s tiny seeds. . Tests for and analyses of bioactive chemical compounds would likely resolve questions about the use of Chenopodium berlandieri and the medicinal use may be evident in the concentration of these compounds.