Chenopodium album Linnaeus subsp. karoi Murr, Neu. Übers. Bl.-Pfl. Vorarlberg 1: 97. 1923; C. prostratum Bunge ex Herder (1889), not Roemer & Schultes (1820), nor Jacquemont ex Moquin-Tandon (1849), nor Roxburgh ex J. D. Hooker (1886); C. prostratum subsp. karoi (Murr) Lomonosova.

Herbs annual, 20-40 cm tall. Stem prostrate or obliquely spreading, much branched, green striate, terete or obtusely ribbed. Petiole 1-3 cm, slender; leaf blade abaxially pallid, adaxially gray-green, ovate to broadly so, 1.5-3 × 1-2.5 cm, abaxially densely farinose, prominently 3-veined, adaxially not or only slightly farinose, base broadly cuneate, margin usually 3-lobed, apex obtuse or acute and mucronate; central lobe margin entire, rarely slightly crenate; lateral lobes positioned near middle of leaf blade, margin obtuse and entire. Flowers several per glomerule, these arranged on branchlets into axillary panicles shorter than leaves. Perianth segments (4 or)5, usually closed in fruit, ovate, abaxially slightly keeled, margin yellowish, membranous, apex obtuse. Stamens as many as perianth segments; anthers exserted at anthesis. Stigmas 2(or 3), filiform. Pericarp yellow-brown, membranous, adnate to seed. Seed horizontal, black, sublustrous, lenticular, 1-1.2 mm in diam., finely pitted. Fl. and fr. Aug-Sep.

This species is closely related to Chenopodium iljinii and the C Asian C. pamiricum Iljin on the one hand, and to C. bryoniifolium on the other.

Mountains, often around livestock corrals, wastelands, around houses, vegetable gardens; 1500-4000 m. W Gansu, N Hebei, Qinghai, NW Sichuan, Xinjiang, Xizang [Mongolia, Russia (Far East, Siberia); C Asia].