Single Record

Counties: Alamosa, Conejos, Costilla, Hinsdale, Mineral, Rio Grande, Saguache, Archuleta

PhotoRecords: YES Rich Haswell: Rio Grande Co, Monte Vista vacant lot, 4 Sept 2019

Comments: Although pinyon goosefoot is frequently collected in the San Juans west of the Divide, it is poorly represented in the Watershed—less than ten collections from basin, foothill, and low montane locations on both sides of the Valley. Note that Chenopodium atrovirens is difficult to distinguish from other Chenopodiums, such as C. hians, C. desiccatum, and C. pratericola. Key characters are: stem erect and branched; overall shape of plant often narrow in diameter; leaves variable on the same plant, ranging from lanceolate to oblong to rhomboid, sometimes with lobes at the base; larger leaves distinctly three-veined; leaves appearing bi-colored because the under side is much more densely farinose; petioles curved upwards; inflorescence terminal and axilliary with glomerules bunched but irregularly spaced throughout; perianth carinate and farinose; pericarp of the seed growing more loosely attached with age; seeds black and wrinkled and with pronounced margins. In the USA C. atrovirens, notoriously invasive in ruderal ground (although native), is present in all Western states, and follows the Rio Grande drainage—with scattered observations—down through New Mexico to the Big Bend country of Texas.