Kermadec Islands, North Island: Rocky places near the sea, not uncommon. Also plentiful in east Australia, from Queensland southwards.
Closely resembles Chenopodium triandrum in habit and foliage, and is easily mistaken for it in the absence of fruit. It probably occurs in the South Island, but I have seen no specimens from thence.
2. CHENOPODIUM, Linn.
Annual or perennial erect or prostrate herbs, rarely woody at the base, mealy or glandular-pubescent, seldom glabrous. Leaves alternate, entire or lobed or toothed. Flowers minute, greenish, usually hermaphrodite, sessile in clusters; clusters axillary or in terminal spikes or panicles. Perianth 5-partite, rarely 3–4-partite; segments obtuse, incurved and concave, not at all or very slightly altered in fruit. Stamens 5 or fewer; filaments filiform or flattened, sometimes connate at the base. Ovary depressed or ovoid, styles 2–3, free or united at the base. Fruit an ovoid or depressed membranous utricle, wholly or partially included in the persistent perianth. Seed horizontal or vertical; testa crustaceous; embryo annular, enclosing the copious mealy albumen.
A widely distributed genus of from 50 to 60 species, most abundant in temperate climates. Of those described below, three are common in many parts of the world as weeds of cultivation or wayside plants, and may not be true natives of New Zealand.
| * Seed horizontal (rarely vertical in C. glaucum). | |
| Intensely fœtid, prostrate or decumbent, mealy-pulverulent. Leaves ⅙–½ in., triangular-hastate, entire. Flowers in small dense axillary clusters | 1. C. detestans. |
| Prostrate or trailing, often glaucous, mealy-pulverulent. Leaves ¼–1 in., triangular oblong or hastate, entire. Flowers in lax axillary or terminal spikes or panicles | 2. C. triandrum. |
| Prostrate, fleshy. Leaves ½–1½ in., oblong or deltoid, sinuate-lobed, mealy beneath. Flowers in axillary or terminal spikes | 3. C. glaucum. |
| Erect or spreading, green or slightly mealy. Leaves ¾–1½ in., triangular or rhomboid, toothed or lobed. Flowers in axillary or terminal spikes or panicles | 4. C. urbicum. |
| Erect, aromatic, glandular-pubescent, not mealy. Leaves 1–4 in., ovate-lanceolate, sinuate-toothed. Flowers very numerous, in slender axillary spikes | 5. C. ambrosioides. |
| ** Seed vertical. | |
| Glandular-pubescent. Stems 6–18 in., decumbent below, erect above. Leaves ¼–¾ in., oblong, sinuate-lobed or pinnatifid. Flowers in dense axillary fascicles | 6. C. carinatum. |
| Small, glandular-pubescent, much branched, prostrate, 2–6 in. long. Leaves 110–13 in., broadly oblong or orbicular, obscurely sinuate. Flowers in axillary glomerules | 7. C pusillum. |
1. C. detestans, T. Kirk in Trans. N.Z. Inst. ix. (1877) 550.—A much-branched prostrate or decumbent herb, more or less clothed with a whitish granular meal, and with a strong and offensive
