Flora of New Zealand Series

fathen

Erect or spreading, simple or branched, green or grey-farinose, sometimes reddish tinged, eglandular, non-aromatic, annual herb. Stems (2)-5-200 cm tall. Petiole usually 1-1.5× lamina; lamina extremely variable, usually 1.5-7 × 1-4 cm, lanceolate to ovate, rhombic or triangular, entire to coarsely serrate-dentate, rarely slightly 3-lobed; base usually cuneate, sometimes rounded or truncate; farina when present denser beneath, sometimes purple-tinged on young lvs, very rarely lamina bright green. Infls paniculate, sometimes very narrow, terminal and axillary, to c. 30 cm long, lacking subtending lvs in upper part, simple in depauperate plants, otherwise spicately branched; glomerules c. 8-flowered, dense or interrupted, ± farinose. Fls usually in dense panicles, sessile or subsessile. Perianth segments 0.5-2.5-(3) × 0.6-1 mm, broad and imbricate, accrescent; keel obtuse, green; margins broadly hyaline. Fr. completely invested by perianth; pericarp easily removed. Seed horizontal, (1.0)-1.1-1.4-(1.6) mm diam., flattened, circular, glossy black, generally smooth except for faint striations; keel obtuse.

N.; S.: common throughout; K., Ch., C.

Temperate Eurasia, N. Africa 1867

Modified habitats, particularly common in disturbed and open ground, also sandy coastal and inland areas to c. 1000 m.

FL Dec-May.

Poisonous to stock (Connor 1977), but eaten as a potherb by humans.

Fathen varies tremendously according to soil and climate and thus there is a great range of form from slender, erect and often stunted plants, to large, spreading bushy ones. In addition, the lvs vary most significantly in size, shape and colour (glaucous or green), the stem ribs may be pale green, yellowish or dark red, whilst the glomerules differ in size. Fruiting plants sometimes only have small, reduced, lanceolate and entire lvs. In dry exposed or impoverished sites, plants are often stunted and complete their life cycle when no more than 5 cm high.

The above description includes plants sometimes assigned to doubtfully distinct segregate spp. which are often not recognised in Floras. C. probstii Aellen was described from Adelaide; specimens from N.Z. identified as C. probstii by Aellen are extremely difficult to distinguish from some forms of C. album. C. probstii is said to be characterised by its thick, broad-triangular or ovate-triangular lower lvs, shining above, and large glomerules of fls. These features can be found in what is considered here as C. album. C. probstii is part of the C. album group and is therefore most unlikely to be indigenous in Australasia. C. suecicum Murr has also been recorded for N.Z. (as C. viride). This member of the C. album group has rhombic-ovate, green (never farinose), sharply serrate lvs, and a more obviously grooved testa. C. ficifolium is another member of the C. album group and has been collected in N.Z. more than once. It is described briefly under the key to Chenopodium spp.