''Chenopodium hians'' is a species of flowering plant in the family

Amaranthaceae Amaranthaceae is a family of flowering plants commonly known as the amaranth family, in reference to its type genus ''Amaranthus''. It includes the former goosefoot family Chenopodiaceae and contains about 165 genera and 2,040 species, making it ...

known by the common names hians goosefoot and gaping goosefoot. The Latin species name ''hians'' means "gaping".CalFlora Plant Names
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Distribution

It is native to much of the western half of North America from

British Columbia British Columbia (commonly abbreviated as BC) is the westernmost province of Canada, situated between the Pacific Ocean and the Rocky Mountains. It has a diverse geography, with rugged landscapes that include rocky coastlines, sandy beaches, ...

California California is a state in the Western United States, located along the Pacific Coast. With nearly 39.2million residents across a total area of approximately , it is the most populous U.S. state and the 3rd largest by area. It is also the m ...

Texas Texas (, ; Spanish: ''Texas'', ''Tejas'') is a state in the South Central region of the United States. At 268,596 square miles (695,662 km2), and with more than 29.1 million residents in 2020, it is the second-largest U.S. state by ...

, where it grows in many types of open habitat, moist and dry, including disturbed areas such as roadsides.

Description

This is an annual herb growing an erect, branching stem up 80 centimeters in maximum height. It is powdery in texture, especially on the leaves and flowers. The leaves are up to 3 centimeters long, oval to lance-shaped with smooth edges. The

inflorescence An inflorescence is a group or cluster of flowers arranged on a Plant stem, stem that is composed of a main branch or a complicated arrangement of branches. Morphology (biology), Morphologically, it is the modified part of the shoot of sperma ...

is a spike or panicle a few centimeters long made up of several clusters of tightly packed tiny flowers. Each flower has five lobes and coats the developing fruit.

References

External links

Calflora Database: ''Chenopodium hians'' (gaping goosefoot, hians goosefoot)USDA Plants Profile for ''Chenopodium hians'' (hians goosefoot)Jepson Manual eFlora (TJM2) treatment of ''Chenopodium hians''Flora of North America
hians Flora of the Western United States Flora of British Columbia Flora of California Flora of Texas Flora of the Rocky Mountains Flora of the Sierra Nevada (United States) Natural history of the California chaparral and woodlands Natural history of the Transverse Ranges Flora without expected TNC conservation status {{Amaranthaceae-stub