Common Lambsquarters

Weeds

lamb's quarters, baconweed, frostbite, fat-hen, white goosefoot, pigweed, wild spinach

Chenopodium album

Photos

Common Lambsquarters7.jpg

Like many other summer annual broadleaf weeds, common lambsquarters is generally considered an 'establishment weed.' Common lambsquarters needs cultivation (bare, loose soil) to establish. Therefore, it can often be found in spring establishments, compost piles, waste areas, and fallow fields. Common lambsquarters does not tolerate routine mowing and will usually disappear after a month or two of maintenance. The leaves are somewhat variable in shape although they tend to be rhombic (wider in the middle and tapering at the apex and petiole) and covered with a gray-mealy coating.

  • Crops Affected: turf

    Management

    Common lambsquarters is a small-seeded broadleaf weed. This means that it needs disturbed soils to facilitate germination and establishment. Common lambsquarters is most often a transient weed in turfgrass systems. It will often be present in new seedings but is easily removed with consistent, routine mowing. Patience, fertilization and mowing should remove common lambsquarters in less than a season. Seeds can remain dormant in the soil for years, future disruption to the soil or opening of the turf canopy will likely result in another crop.

    Similar Species

    The leaf shape of redroot pigweed is generally similar to common lambsquarters, however, there are many distinguishing characteristics. Both leaves are lanceolate (wider at the base); lambsquarters has irregularly toothed margin and pigweed is entire (smooth). Pigweed has a very thin leaf with prominent veins and lacks the gray-mealy coating of lambsquarters.

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