Lambs Quarter, Chenopods, Mexican Tea, Pickleweed, Firebush, Saltbush ...
Latin name:
Chenopodium spp., Beta vulgaris, Atriplex spp., Kochia spp., Salsola kali, Salicornia europaea, Suaeda maritima, and others.
Description:
A large family of weeds ands bushes with tiny, inconspicuous flowers, mostly concentrated in clusters. They colonize mainly waste land, acres, and very often salty soils. Their colour is often grayish - green, the leaves are simple. In general, they are not very attractive plants. It is very hard if not impossible to distinguish the pollen of the different species in the microscope, even the pollen of the related family of Amaranths (careless weed, pigweed) look alike.
Note: a few plants of this family are known as food plants, as there is spinach (
Spinacia oleracea), beet, and sugar beet (
Beta vulgaris). As they develop the leaves and beets during the first year of vegetation and flowers in the second year, there is no danger from fields of these crops. They are harvested before flowering.
Start of the season:
In temperate climates the season lasts from June to September. Along the coasts, in the Mediterranean, the season is prolonged.
Allergenicity:
The allergenicity is low to moderate. Some species, like Russian thistle (
Salsola kali), can become a problem in semi-deserts (near East).
It is likely that cross reactions between the different species and genera exist within the family, but no cross reactions to other plants are documented.
