''Chenopodium atrovirens'' is a species of flowering plant in the amaranth family known by the common names pinyon goosefoot and dark goosefoot.

Distribution

It is native to western North America, including southern

Western Canada Western Canada, also referred to as the Western provinces, Canadian West or the Western provinces of Canada, and commonly known within Canada as the West, is a Canadian region that includes the four western provinces just north of the Canada� ...

and most of the

Western United States The Western United States (also called the American West, the Far West, and the West) is the region comprising the westernmost states of the United States. As American settlement in the U.S. expanded westward, the meaning of the term ''the Wes ...

. It grows in many types of habitat, including open, sandy sites and disturbed areas, and in montane regions such as the

Sierra Nevada The Sierra Nevada () is a mountain range in the Western United States, between the Central Valley of California and the Great Basin. The vast majority of the range lies in the state of California, although the Carson Range spur lies primarily ...

Peninsular Ranges The Peninsular Ranges (also called the Lower California province) are a group of mountain ranges that stretch from Southern California to the southern tip of the Baja California peninsula; they are part of the North American Coast Ranges, which ...

, and

Rocky Mountains The Rocky Mountains, also known as the Rockies, are a major mountain range and the largest mountain system in North America. The Rocky Mountains stretch in straight-line distance from the northernmost part of western Canada, to New Mexico in ...

Description

It is an annual herb growing an erect, branching stem up to about 60 centimeters tall, sometimes remaining much smaller. It is green to magenta in color and coated lightly in pinkish powdery dust. The leaves are oblong or oval and up to 3.5 centimeters long. They have smooth edges and sometimes have a few lobes. The

inflorescence An inflorescence is a group or cluster of flowers arranged on a stem that is composed of a main branch or a complicated arrangement of branches. Morphologically, it is the modified part of the shoot of seed plants where flowers are formed o ...

is a rounded cluster of many minute flowers. Each tiny flower has five slightly powdery lobes in its corolla, each barely visible. The fruit is oval in shape and about a millimeter long, coating the tiny seed loosely.

References

External links

Jepson Manual TreatmentUSDA Plants Profile
atrovirens Flora of Western Canada Flora of the Western United States Flora of the Southwestern United States Flora of Colorado Flora of the Sierra Nevada (United States) Flora of the Rocky Mountains Flora of California Flora of the California desert regions Flora of North America Flora without expected TNC conservation status {{Amaranthaceae-stub