Single Record

PhotoRecords: YES Rich Haswell: Rio Grande Co, Lookout Mt just SW of Del Norte, 8 Aug 2014; Elephant Rocks N of Del Norte 2 Oct 2018; Saguache Co, Saguache town park, 28 July 2020

Comments: There are about ten Watershed vouchers of stinky goosefoot, from basin to lower montane, on both sides of the Valley; e.g., near Antonito (Conejos Co, 1910); Cottonwood Spring NNW of Saguache (Saguache Co, 1999); Baca Grande Subdivision near Creston (Saguache Co, 2014). Chenopodium watsonii is much more common than this record suggests. It can cover many square meters of Basin shrubland and foothills.It is especially adept at occupying over-grazed and other disturbed ground, sometimes urban. The photoecords near Del Norte would add Rio Grande to counties indicated in Ackerfield (2022) and BONAP (2022). Chenopodium watsonii is based chiefly in Arizona, New Mexico, Wyoming, and Colorado, with outlying locations in California, Nevada, Utah, and Montana. In New Mexico, it follows the Rio Grande drainage to the Border with Mexico, but the distribution follows the drainage no farther. Note that C. watsonii is not the only goosefoot potentially in the Watershed malodorous to human noses (e.g., C. neomexicanum). When well dried in the field, it loses much of its fishy smell. Its best diagnostic trait is its very adherent whitish pericarp covering a honeycombed seed. For more photos and commentary, click "yes" in the Annotation field below.