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Monolepis nuttalliana

Common name:	Poverty Weed	Family:	Chenopodiaceae
Author:	(Schult.)Greene.	Botanical references:	43, 235
Synonyms:	Monolepis chenopodioides ((Nutt.)Moq.), Blitum nuttallianum (Schult.), Blitum chenopodioides (Nutt.)
Known Hazards:	None known
Range:	Western N. America - Manitoba to California, Texas and New Mexico.
Habitat:	Waste places, lawn edges, gardens etc in dry, saline and alkaline soils[43, 85, 235].
Edibility Rating (1-5):	2	Medicinal Rating (1-5):	1

Other Possible Synonyms:	From various places across the web, may not be correct. See below.
	Chenopodium botryodes[B,P] Chenopodium chenopodioides[B,C,CAL,P] Chenopodium chenopodioides var. degenianum[B,P] Chenopodium chenopodioides var. lengyelianum[B,P] Chenopodium humile[B] Chenopodium humile auct. non[P] Chenopodium rubrum var. glomeratum[B,P] Chenopodium rubrum var. humile[B] Chenopodium rubrum var. humile auct. non[P] M. nuttaliana[HORTIPLEX]
Other Common Names:	From various places around the Web, may not be correct. See below.
	Nuttall Povertyweed [L], Nuttall's Poverty-weed [B], Nuttall's Povertyweed [P],
Systematics:	From a USDA Plants Database
	Order: Caryophyllales. Goosefoot family
Noxious, Invasive and Injurious Weeds	From USDA PLANTS database, Weeds Australia , DEFRA Injurious Weeds
	Listed as noxious/invasive for: USA Invasive.

Physical Characteristics

Annual growing to 0.3m. . It is in flower from June to October. The flowers are hermaphrodite (have both male and female organs) and are pollinated by Wind. We rate it 2/5 for edibility and 1/5 for medicinal use.

The plant prefers light (sandy), medium (loamy) and heavy (clay) soils and requires well-drained soil. The plant prefers acid, neutral and basic (alkaline) soils and can grow in very alkaline and saline soils. It cannot grow in the shade. It requires dry or moist soil and can tolerate drought.

Habitats and Possible Locations

Cultivated Beds.

Edible Uses

Leaves; Root; Seed.

Leaves - cooked until tender[257]. A pleasant mild flavour[85, 106], they are used as greens[257].
Root - cooked[46, 61, 105, 161, 257]. Small but with an acceptable flavour when young, the older ones are rather tough[85].
Seed. Very small and fiddly, it is used as a piñole[46, 61, 85, 105, 161]. The seed can also be dried, ground into a powder then mixed with water and eaten as a mush[257].

Medicinal Uses

Disclaimer

Poultice.

A poultice of moist leaves has been applied to skin abrasions[257].

Other Uses

None known

Cultivation details

We have almost no information on this species and do not know if it will be hardy in Britain, though it should be possible to grow it as a half-hardy annual in this country. It is likely to require a well-drained soil in a sunny position.

Propagation

Seed - we have no information on this species but suggest sowing the seed in late spring in situ.

Suppliers

For more details of plant suppliers please see our Suppliers Page which lists many more places to look.

Web References

[L] Scientific and Common Names (some photos) from Lepidoptera and some other life forms
[B] Data (Latin & Common names, other references) from the BONAP's Synonymized Checklist of the Vascular Flora of the United States, Puerto Rico, and the Virgin Islands.
[G] Data (Common Names, Uses, Distribution) from the USDA/ARS NPGS's GRIN taxonomic database.
[C] Taxon data. from the CalFlora database.
[P] Data. (uses, distribution, wetland) from the USDA'a Plants database.

References for Chenopodium chenopodioides (a possible synonym).

[B] Data (Latin & Common names, other references) from the BONAP's Synonymized Checklist of the Vascular Flora of the United States, Puerto Rico, and the Virgin Islands.
[C] Taxon data. from the CalFlora database.
[P] Data. (uses, distribution, wetland) from the USDA'a Plants database.

References for Monolepis nuttaliana (a possible synonym).

[HP] Links, Photos, Suppliers from Hortiplex Plant Database

References for the family Chenopodiaceae.

[CHINA] Draft Data Very detailed botanical/identification info. from the Flora of China.

See the PFAF Links Pages for other sources.

Also try Photos and info from the The Plants Database which has 14,000 images.

References

[43] Fernald. M. L. Gray's Manual of Botany. American Book Co. 1950
A bit dated but good and concise flora of the eastern part of N. America.

[46] Uphof. J. C. Th. Dictionary of Economic Plants. Weinheim 1959
An excellent and very comprehensive guide but it only gives very short descriptions of the uses without any details of how to utilize the plants. Not for the casual reader.

[61] Usher. G. A Dictionary of Plants Used by Man. Constable 1974 ISBN 0094579202
Forget the sexist title, this is one of the best books on the subject. Lists a very extensive range of useful plants from around the world with very brief details of the uses. Not for the casual reader.

[85] Harrington. H. D. Edible Native Plants of the Rocky Mountains. University of New Mexico Press 1967 ISBN 0-8623-0343-9
A superb book. Very readable, it gives the results of the authors experiments with native edible plants.

[105] Tanaka. T. Tanaka's Cyclopaedia of Edible Plants of the World. Keigaku Publishing 1976
The most comprehensive guide to edible plants I've come across. Only the briefest entry for each species, though, and some of the entries are more than a little dubious. Not for the casual reader.

[106] Coon. N. The Dictionary of Useful Plants. Rodale Press 1975 ISBN 0-87857-090-x
Interesting reading but short on detail.

[161] Yanovsky. E. Food Plants of the N. American Indians. Publication no. 237. U.S. Depf of Agriculture.
A comprehensive but very terse guide. Not for the casual reader.

[235] Britton. N. L. Brown. A. An Illustrated Flora of the Northern United States and Canada Dover Publications. New York. 1970 ISBN 0-486-22642-5
Reprint of a 1913 Flora, but still a very useful book.

[257] Moerman. D. Native American Ethnobotany Timber Press. Oregon. 1998 ISBN 0-88192-453-9
Very comprehensive but terse guide to the native uses of plants. Excellent bibliography, fully referenced to each plant, giving a pathway to further information. Not for the casual reader.

Readers Comments

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Bibliography

Plant information taken from the Plants For A Future - Species Database. Copyright (c) 1997-2003.
WEB search engine by Rich Morris - Home Page- Contact Info
Blagdon Cross, Ashwater, Beaworthy, Devon, EX21 5DF, UK.
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We make no claims of magical effects or supernatural powers for any item in this catalog. In spite of legendary attributes or occult and craft tradition, such items are offered as curios only and beliefs concerning their magical effectiveness are related only for historical interest.