圆头藜 yuan tou li

Chenopodium betaceum Andrzejowski; C. striatum (Krašan) Murr.

Herbs annual, 20-50 cm tall. Stem erect, basal branches ascending, upper branches usually erect; stem and branches green and red striate, often becoming deep beet red at maturity, ribbed. Leaf blade abaxially whitish gray to dark green, ovate-oblong to oblong, usually 1.5-3(-6) × 0.8-2.5 cm, 2-3 × as long as petiole, abaxially moderately to densely farinose, adaxially slightly or moderately farinose, base broadly cuneate, margin above base subentire to serrate or dentate, apex rounded, sometimes shortly mucronate; teeth gradually becoming smaller distally on margin. Glomerules arranged into narrow, interrupted, spikelike or moniliform panicles on upper part of branches. Flowers bisexual. Perianth segments 5, obovate, abaxially slightly keeled, margin membranous. Stigmas 2, filiform, recurved. Utricle depressed; pericarp adnate to seed. Seed black or black-red, sublustrous, depressed ovoid, ca. 1 mm in diam., slightly lineate, rim margin acutely ribbed. Fl. and fr. Jul-Sep.

Valleys, river banks, roadsides. Gansu, Hebei, Shaanxi, Shanxi, S Xinjiang; also NE China [Japan, Korea, Russia (S Siberia); C and SW Asia, Europe; naturalized in North America and occasionally elsewhere].

The Chenopodium strictum group includes several closely related, predominantly (or exclusively?) tetraploid (2n = 36) species or infraspecific taxa, such as C. novopokrovskyanum (Aellen) Uotila, C. striatiforme Murr, C. strictum, and some others. Chenopodium novopokrovskyanum (Aellen) Uotila (Ann. Bot. Fenn. 30: 192. 1993; C. album Linnaeus subsp. novopokrovskyanum Aellen, Trudy Rostovsk. Otd. Vsesoyuzn. Bot. Obshch. 2: 3. 1938) differs from C. strictum in having leaf blades narrow, densely farinose (grayish green to silvery), and with the margin entire or subentire, occasionally with 1, rarely 2, pairs of teeth. In its overall habit, C. novopokrovskyanum is superficially similar to North American species of C. subsect. Leptophylla Clemants & Mosyakin, but it is not directly related to them. Chenopodium novopokrovskyanum is known from the steppe and desert zones of SE Europe (SE European Russia and SE Ukraine), C and SW Asia, and probably also NW China, W Mongolia, and S Siberia. The distribution of this taxon in China needs clarification.