Fabaceae / Papilionaceae

Chenopodiaceae
Chenopodium album L.
English name: Bacon Weed, white goose foot.
Local name: Sindhi- Jhil ghaa, Chil ghaa, Urdu- Bathu, Punjabi-
Bathua.
Description:
An erect annual salt tolerant succulent species up to 10-150 cm high herb covered
with mealy, glandular substances. Leaves fleshy almost triangular, venation not
very clearly visible. Flowers minute greenish in compact terminal panicles. Seeds
minute roughly rounded black.
Flowering Period:
January to March.
Habitat:
Mainly a winter annual found in the fields of wheat and
other winter crops and moist, open places near
plantations. Rarely found as summer annual in
July-August.
Uses:
Tender shoots and leaves are cooked as a vegetable,
the juice of the plant relieves eye-troubles; juice of the
root is given to treat bloody dysentery. Seeds are
chewed in cases of urinary troubles.
Distribution:
Almost cosmopolitan, common in subtropical to
temperate zones.
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