Strawberry Blite

"Strawberry-Blite" (Chenopodium capitatum)

2007 August 5

2007 July 17

2007 July 17

2007 September 9

2007 September 9

The red fruits do sort of look like srawberries but the "blite" part of the name sort of gives one an initial bad impression, for one immediately thinks of the word "blight" instead of "blite". One reference tells me 'blite' comes from the Latin blitum, meaning 'insipid' , another reference tells me it comes from the Greek bliton, a word used for plants that have edible leaves (like spinach). The red fruit of this plant can be and was used as a red dye source. One can even add the leaves and flowers to a salad (I haven't tried this). I had never seen this plant before moving here and was quite taken with the pretty red fruit so had to search out just what it was. Now, we are forever picking these plants out of our front lawn and garden. While they can grow to a fair size, we get these miniature versions trying to sneak by, just under the lawn mower blades!

Lamb's Quarters

"Lamb's Quarters" (Chenopodium album)

2007 June 17

2007 June 17

2007 June 17

2007 September 1

2007 September 1

An edible potherb from Eurasia related to spinach. I have eaten the leaves both cooked and raw in salads. It is high in iron, beta-carotene and vitamin C but does contain oxalalic acid which may interfere with calcium metabolism ... if eaten in large quantities.

Seeds (about 72,000 seeds per plant) may be ground and used as a coffee substitute ... or a flour substitute. Bonaparte apparently fed his army bread made from the seed somewhere along the line!

The plant may be boiled and used as a crude green dye.

The leaves are shaped somewhat like a goose's foot so hence the name Chenopodium (chen = goose; podos = a foot). Also called pigweed, or in England, "midden myles".