Fat-hen

Chenopodium album

I'll no more go roaming, no more seeking,
No more crushing goosefoot in the wood.
With those oatsheaf locks you tossed when speaking
You have vanished from my dreams for good.
Poem by Sergey Yesenin (translated from Russian).

It is easy to walk past this initially inconspicuous and commonplace flower that appears in the park just as summer is coming to a close and autumn is getting started. However, if you do see it you should stop and take a closer look and perhaps come on further occasions and watch it develop.

Fat-hen (Chenopodium album) growing near Barrack road

Taxonomy

Fat-hen belongs to what used to be called the Goosefoot family or Chenopodiaceae but is now in the Amaranthaceae. There are a lot of members of this family that can look similar including good King-Henry (Chenopodium bonus-henricus), fig-leaved goosefoot (C.ficifolium), nettle-leaved goosefoot (C.murale) and others. Sometimes people give up trying to separate out different members of the genus and refer to 'fat henry's foot' or some other composite name.

General appearance

Fat-hen grows up to 1.5m and has an erect habit with a branching stem. Immature specimens have greenish stripes along the stem. With increasing maturity, these stripes turn red in colour. The leaves are arranged alternately up the stem.

Leaves

The leaves are arranged alternately up the stem and are diamond-shaped. The two shorter sides nearest the leaf stalk (strictly speaking a petiole) are untoothed and the opposite two sides are toothed - see picture below. The leaves have a mealy appearance due to hairs or trichomes which are visible with suitable magnification.

Chenopodium album leaf showing slightly mealy appearance. 
With magnification, the fine white dots are glandular hairs.

Inflorescence and flowers

There are multiple spike inflorescences branching off the stem. The flowers are actinomorphic (radially symmetric). There are no petals but five sepals that are joined at their bases. The ovary is situated superiorly and two styles emerge from the top of the ovary. When the sepals open out 5 stamens with yellow anthers become visible.

Fat-hen inflorescences. Clusters of flowers without petals can be seen

As the sepals mature they become red in colour and the flower starts to open.

Where to find fat-hen

Fat-hen is a weedy plant that likes disturbed soils and historically it was found close to human settlements where rubbish was thrown out. It is not surprising then that is found in Leazes Park in the area near Barrack Road where somebody appears to have dumped some garden rubbish in the past. Growing alongside Fat-hen you can find other Goosefoots, common orache, black nightshade and tomato plants.

Yellow arrow showing a good place to look for fat-hen in late August and September





Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Hemlock

Image
Conium maculatum The man.... laid his hands on him and after a while examined his feet and legs. Then pinched his foot hard and asked if he felt it. He said "no";  then after that, his thighs; and passing upwards in this way he showed us he was going cold and rigid. And then again he touched him and said that when it reached his heart he would be gone. Plato on the death of Socrates Hemlock is poisonous, so poisonous, that it was used for executions in ancient Greece. The most famous victim of hemlock was Socrates who was condemned to death for corrupting the young minds of Athens in 399BC.  You should treat hemlock with respect and know how to distinguish it from other members of the Apiaceae because even casual contact with the plant can be dangerous. For example, using the hollow stems to make a blow-pipe has resulted in burnt lips and nausea. 1. Bank of hemlock by the lake Taxonomy Hemlock belongs to the Apiaceae or carrot family which has been discussed in gener...
Read more

Introduction

If ever you catch quite a beginner and want to give him a taste for botany tell him to make a perfect list of some little field or wood. Both Miss Thorley and I agree that it gives a really uncommon interest to the work, having a nice little definite world to work on, instead of the awful abyss and immensity of all British Plants. Charles Darwin in a letter to Joseph Hooker -director of Kew Gardens There are two ways of becoming wise. One is to travel out into the world and see as much as possible of God's creation. The other is is to put down roots in one spot and to study everything that happens there in as much detail as possible. The trouble is that it's impossible to do both at the same time. Jostein Gardner - The Christmas Mystery You will have probably gathered from the two quotes above that the general theme of this blog is studying one area in detail rather than travelling far and wide. In this case, studying the wild flowers that grow in Leazes Park and where po...
Read more

The Carrot Family - Apiaceae

Image
Repetition is the essence of the plant Theophrastus 372-287BC This post will review a family, several members of which will be putting in an appearance in the park over the next few weeks. The Apiaceae is one of the most distinctive of all plant families and its members were the first to be lumped together into a distinct grouping as long ago as the end of the 16th century. This was on account of the shape of the inflorescence called an umbel which in turn gave rise to the old family name the Umbelliferae. That family name has gone, at least in part, because some flowers from other families also have umbels. The members of the Apiaceae that we will discuss over the coming weeks are cow parsley  Anthriscus sylvestris , hogweed  Heracleum sphondylium  and finally my favourite wild carrot  Daucus carota . Habit Members of this family often have stout stems that are ridged and hollow, a recipe that gives them the strength and rigidity that can allow members ...
Read more