Lambs Quarter Traditional Cache

Lambs Quarter takes the place of Tansy. It's near the cache. It's not the plant I mistook for Tansy. That one I still don't know what it is.

Lambs Quarter

Chenopodium album is a fast-growing weedy annual plant in the genus Chenopodium.

Though cultivated in some regions, the plant is elsewhere considered a weed. Common names include lamb's quarters, melde, goosefoot and fat-hen, though the latter two are also applied to other species of the genus Chenopodium, for which reason it is often distinguished as white goosefoot. It is sometimes also called pigweed, however, pigweed is also a name for a few weeds in the family Amaranthaceae,: it is for example used for the redroot pigweed (Amaranthus retroflexus).

Chenopodium album is extensively cultivated and consumed in Northern India as a food crop.

Distribution

Its native range is obscure due to extensive cultivation, but includes most of Europe, from where Linnaeus described the species in 1753. Plants native in eastern Asia are included under C. album, but often differ from European specimens. It is widely introduced elsewhere, e.g.Africa,Australasia,North Amaerica and Oceania, and now occurs almost everywhere in soils rich in nitrogen, especially on wasteland.

Botany

It tends to grow upright at first, reaching heights of 10–150 cm (rarely to 3 m), but typically becomes recumbent after flowering (due to the weight of the foliage and seeds) unless supported by other plants. The leaves are alternate and can be varied in appearance. The first leaves, near the base of the plant, are toothed and roughly diamond-shaped, 3–7 cm long and 3–6 cm broad. The leaves on the upper part of the flowering stems are entire and lanceolate-rhomboid, 1–5 cm long and 0.4–2 cm broad; they are waxy-coated, unwettable and mealy in appearance, with a whitish coat on the underside. The small flowers are radially symmetrical and grow in small cymes on a dense branched inflorescence 10–40 cm long.

Cultivation

Regions where cultivated

The species are cultivated as a grain or vegetable crop (such as in lieu of spinach), as well as animal feed in Asia and Africa, whereas in Europe and North America, it is commonly regarded as a weed in places such as potato fields.

Potential impact on conventional crops

It is one of the more robust and competitive weeds, capable of producing crop losses of up to 13% in corn, 25% in soybeans, and 48% in sugar beets at an average plant distribution. It may be controlled by dark tillage, rotary hoeing, or flaming when the plants are small. Crop rotation of small grains will suppress an infestation. It is easily controlled with a number of pre-emergence herbicides. Its pollen may contribute to hay fever-like allergies.

Beneficial use in ecological pest control

Chenopodium album is vulnerable to leaf miners, making it a useful trap as a companion plant. Growing near other plants, it attracts leaf miners which might otherwise have attacked the crop to be protected. It is a host plant for the beet leafhopper, an insect which transmits curly top virus to beet crops.

Food

The leaves and young shoots may be eaten as a leaf vegetable, either steamed in its entirety, or cooked like spinach, but should be eaten in moderation due to high levels of oxalic acid. Each plant produces tens of thousands of black seeds. These are high in protein, vitamin A, calcium, phosphorus, and potassium. Quinoa, a closely related species, is grown specifically for its seeds.The Zuni people cook the young plants' greens.

Archeologists analysing carbonized plant remains found in storage pits and ovens at Iraon Age, Viking Age, and Roman sites in Europe have found its seeds mixed with conventional grains and even inside the stomachs of Danish bog bodies.

In India, the plant is popularly called bathua and found abundantly in the winter season.The leaves and young shoots of this plant are used in dishes such as soups, curries, and paratha-stuffed breads, especially popular in Punjab. The seeds or grains are used in phambra or laafi, gruel-type dishes in Himachal Pradesh, and in mildly alcoholic fermented beverages such as soora and ghanti.

Animal feed

As some of the common names suggest, it is also used as feed (both the leaves and the seeds) for chickens and

From Plants for a Future:

“Leaves – raw or cooked. A very acceptable spinach substitute, the taste is a little bland but this can be improved by adding a few stronger-flavoured leaves. One report says that, when eaten with beans, the leaves will act as a carminative to prevent wind and bloating. The leaves are best not eaten raw, see the notes above on toxicity. The leaves are generally very nutritious but very large quantities can disturb the nervous system and cause gastric pain." 

 Chenopodium album, the scientific name of Lambs quarter, translates to white goose foot and refers to both the white mealy covering and the leaves resemblance to the webbed foot of a goose. In the same family as quinoa, beets, spinach and chard, (the Chenopodiaceae), Lamb’s-quarter has been eaten in Europe and Asia since Neolithic times as evidenced by the seeds presence in archeological digs. Native to Eurasia, lambs quarter quickly followed the European settlers and was incorporated into the diets of the Native peoples of the Americas. Currently eaten in Japan, South Africa, Europe and the Americas, this cosmopolitan weed is appreciated by many cultures palates.  Its English name, fat hen, and its country name, pigweed, both refer to its use as a food for animals. (The name pigweed is also used for wild Amaranth – another common edible garden weed) There are several explanations for the origins of lambs- quarter’s name. One hypothesis is that the shape of the leaf is reminiscent of a cut of lamb meat, the quarter. Another theory is that a close relative of Lambs quarter, orache, was an integral part of the pagan harvest celebration on the first of August -Lammas Quarter.

The cache is a tied in, camoed, "micro" pill bottle, the kind you have to push hard to open and close. It holds a rolled log with a rubber band in a plastic bag. Please BYOP and try to keep track of everything, so you can put it back as found. No tweezers, please, they kill the plastic.