Other conspecific taxa:

• Chenopodium album var. centrorubrum (0 accessions)
• Chenopodium album var. missouriense (0 accessions)

Common names:

• fat-hen  (Source: Dict Rehm) - English
• giant fat-hen  (Source: Aust Pl Common Names) - English
• lamb's-quarters  (Source: World Econ Pl) - English
• white goosefoot  (Source: Websters Dict) - English
• rukab al-gamal  (Source: Weeds Egypt) - Arabic
• shawlah  (Source: Ill L Qatar) - Arabic
• weraq  (Source: Ill L Qatar) - Arabic
• ansérine blanche  (Source: Dict Rehm) - French
• weißer Gänsefuß  (Source: Zander ed17) - German
• iwa-akaza  (Source: F Japan) - Japanese Rōmaji
• yamā-akaza  (Source: F Japan) - Japanese Rōmaji
• anserina-branca  (Source: Dict Rehm) - Portuguese
• ançarinha-branca  (Source: pers. comm.) - Portuguese (Brazil)
• erva-formigueira-branca  (Source: pers. comm.) - Portuguese (Brazil)
• falsa-erva-de-Santa-Maria  (Source: pers. comm.) - Portuguese (Brazil)
• armuelle  (Source: Dict Rehm) - Spanish
• cenizo blanco  (Source: Dict Rehm) - Spanish
• svinmålla  (Source: Kulturvaxtdatabas) - Swedish
• li  (Source: F ChinaEng) - Transcribed Chinese

Economic Importance:

• Harmful organism host: crop diseases (fide E. J. Ryder, 1999)
• Human food: pseudocereal (fide CultTropS)
• Medicines: folklore (fide Herbs Commerce ed2)
• Vertebrate poisons: mammals (fide Kingsbury; Lampe & McCann; Cooper & Johnson ed2)
• Weed: potential seed contaminant (fide Geigy Weed Tables. 1968; Invasive Pl Spec)

Distributional Range:

Native

Africa

• MACARONESIA: Portugal [Madeira Islands]
• NORTHERN AFRICA: Algeria, Egypt, Libya, Morocco, Tunisia

Asia-Temperate

• WESTERN ASIA: Afghanistan, Iran, Iraq, Israel, Jordan, Lebanon, Syria, Turkey
• CAUCASUS: Azerbaijan, Georgia

Europe

• NORTHERN EUROPE: Denmark, Finland, Norway, Sweden, United Kingdom
• MIDDLE EUROPE: Austria, Belgium, Germany, Hungary, Luxembourg, Netherlands, Poland, Switzerland
• EASTERN EUROPE: Belarus, Latvia, Lithuania, Moldova, Ukraine
• SOUTHEASTERN EUROPE: Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Croatia, Greece, Italy, Macedonia, Romania, Serbia, Slovenia
• SOUTHWESTERN EUROPE: France, Portugal, Spain


Cultivated (also cult.)

Naturalized

Africa

• NORTHEAST TROPICAL AFRICA: Ethiopia
• EAST TROPICAL AFRICA: Kenya, Tanzania, Uganda
• SOUTH TROPICAL AFRICA: Mozambique, Zambia, Zimbabwe
• SOUTHERN AFRICA: Botswana, Namibia, South Africa, Swaziland

Asia-Temperate

• ARABIAN PENINSULA: Saudi Arabia
• CHINA: China
• EASTERN ASIA: Japan, Korea

Asia-Tropical

• INDIAN SUBCONTINENT: India, Nepal, Pakistan, Sri Lanka
• PAPUASIA: Papua New Guinea

Australasia

• AUSTRALIA: Australia
• NEW ZEALAND: New Zealand

Northern America

• SUBARCTIC AMERICA: Canada, [Northwest Territory, Yukon Territory] United States [Alaska]
• EASTERN CANADA: Canada [Quebec, Nova Scotia, Ontario, Prince Edward Island, New Brunswick, Newfoundland]
• WESTERN CANADA: Canada [Saskatchewan, Alberta, Manitoba, British Columbia, Nunavut]
• NORTHEASTERN U.S.A.: United States [Connecticut, Indiana, Maine, Massachusetts, Michigan, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Vermont, West Virginia]
• NORTH-CENTRAL U.S.A.: United States [Illinois, Iowa, Kansas, Minnesota, Missouri, Nebraska, North Dakota, Oklahoma, South Dakota, Wisconsin]
• NORTHWESTERN U.S.A.: United States [Colorado, Idaho, Montana, Oregon, Washington, Wyoming]
• SOUTHEASTERN U.S.A.: United States [Alabama, Arkansas, Delaware, Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maryland, Mississippi, South Carolina, Tennessee, Virginia]
• SOUTH-CENTRAL U.S.A.: United States [New Mexico, Texas]
• SOUTHWESTERN U.S.A.: United States [Arizona, California, Nevada, Utah]
• Mexico

Pacific

• NORTH-CENTRAL PACIFIC: United States [Hawaii]
• NORTHWESTERN PACIFIC: Guam
• SOUTHWESTERN PACIFIC: New Caledonia

Southern America

• CENTRAL AMERICA: Costa Rica
• BRAZIL: Brazil
• WESTERN SOUTH AMERICA: Colombia, Ecuador, Peru
• SOUTHERN SOUTH AMERICA: Argentina, Chile, Paraguay, Uruguay


Other (exact native range obscure)

References:

1. Webster's third new international dictionary. 1961 (Websters Dict)
2. PROTABASE, the information base of PROTA (Plant Resources of Tropical Africa) (on-line resource). (PROTA4U)
3. Aldén, B., S. Ryman, & M. Hjertson Svensk Kulturväxtdatabas, SKUD (Swedish Cultivated and Utility Plants Database; online resource on www.skud.info). 2012 (Kulturvaxtdatabas)
4. Boulos, L. & M. N. El-Hadidi The weeds of Egypt. 1984 (Weeds Egypt)
5. Brako, L. & J. L. Zarucchi Catalogue of the flowering plants and gymnosperms of Peru. Monogr. Syst. Bot. Missouri Bot. Gard. 45. 1993 (L Peru)
6. Burger, W. C., ed. Flora costaricensis. 1971- (F CostaR)
7. CIBA-GEIGY, Basel, Switzerland The CIBA-GEIGY Weed Tables. 1974 (Weed TabCIBA)
8. Cooper, M. R. & A. W. Johnson Poisonous plants and fungi in Britain: animal and human poisoning. 1998 (Cooper & Johnson ed2)
9. Erhardt, W. et al. Zander: Handwörterbuch der Pflanzennamen, 17. Auflage. 2002 (Zander ed17)
10. Euro+Med Editorial Committee Euro+Med Plantbase: the information resource for Euro-Mediterranean plant diversity (on-line resource). (EuroMed Plantbase)
11. Exell, A. W. et al., eds. Flora zambesiaca. 1960- (F Zamb)
12. FNA Editorial Committee Flora of North America. 1993- (F NAmer)
13. Germishuizen, G. & N. L. Meyer, eds. Plants of southern Africa: an annotated checklist. Strelitzia 14. 2003 (Pl SAfr ed2)
14. Groth, D. 2005. pers. comm. (pers. comm.)
15. Hedberg, I. & S. Edwards Flora of Ethiopia. 1989- (and Eritrea. 2000) (F Ethiop)
16. Institute of Pacific Islands Forestry Pacific Island Ecosystems at Risk (PIER): plant threats to Pacific ecosystems (on-line resource). (Pacif I Ecosyst Risk)
17. Instituto de Botánica Darwinion Flora del Conosur. Catálogo de las plantas vasculares. (F ConoSur)
18. Integrated Botanical Information System (IBIS) Australian plant common name database (on-line resource). (Aust Pl Common Names)
19. International Development Consortium Invasive species compendium (on-line resource). (Invasive Spec Comp)
20. Iwatsuki, K. et al. Flora of Japan. 1993- (F Japan)
21. Jørgensen, P. M. & S. León-Yánez, eds. Catalogue of the vascular plants of Ecuador. Monogr. Syst. Bot. Missouri Bot. Gard. 75. 1999 (L Ecuador)
22. McGuffin, M., J. T. Kartesz, A. Y. Leung, & A. O. Tucker Herbs of commerce, ed. 2. 2000 (Herbs Commerce ed2)
23. Norton, J. et al. Illustrated checklist of the flora of Qatar. (Ill L Qatar)
24. Rechinger, K. H., ed. Flora iranica. 1963- (F Iran)
25. Rehm, S. Multilingual dictionary of agronomic plants. 1994 (Dict Rehm)
26. Rehm, S. & G. Espig The cultivated plants of the tropics and subtropics. 1991 (CultTropS)
27. Ryder, E. J. 1999. Lettuce, endive and chicory Crop Prod. Sci. Hort. 9:134.
28. Wu Zheng-yi & P. H. Raven et al., eds. Flora of China (English edition). 1994- (F ChinaEng)

Cite as: USDA, Agricultural Research Service, National Plant Germplasm System. 2026. Germplasm Resources Information Network (GRIN-Taxonomy).
National Germplasm Resources Laboratory, Beltsville, Maryland. URL: http://germoplasma.iniaf.gob.bo/gringlobal/taxonomydetail.aspx?id=10178. Accessed 7 junio 2026.