Chenopodium album
A tall, upright annual weed reaching a metre or more, with dull grey-green leaves dusted in a fine white mealy bloom that rubs off between the fingers. The lower leaves are broadly diamond-shaped with a few coarse teeth, the upper ones narrow, and the tiny green flowers gather in dense dusty spikes. The young shoots and leaves are cooked like spinach, and the ripe seeds can be gathered and used as a grain.
A plant of nitrogen-rich disturbed ground: arable field margins, allotments and gardens, muck heaps, building sites, coastal shingle and dune edges. Widespread and common in lowland Britain and Ireland, scarcer on high ground.
The leaves hold oxalates and saponins, so cook them rather than eating large quantities raw; anyone prone to kidney stones may want to be cautious with repeated large helpings. Plants on heavily manured or fertilised ground can accumulate nitrates. As an arable and roadside weed it is often exposed to spray drift and traffic dirt, so pick well away from cultivated crop edges and busy verges.
Always use more than one reference to confirm a plant. You are responsible for what you choose to forage.
White mealy bloom on the newest growth
The growing tip and the undersides of young leaves are coated in a fine white powder that rubs away between finger and thumb like flour, leaving green underneath. It is thickest on new growth and thins out on older leaves. The plant is never hairy, so a coating that will not rub off is something else.
Goose-foot lower leaves, narrow upper ones
The lower leaves are roughly diamond or goose-foot shaped, 3-7cm long, shallowly toothed and tapering into a clear leaf stalk. Leaves further up the stem get progressively narrower and less toothed. They sit alternately along the stem, never in opposite pairs.
Ridged stem, often streaked with red
The main stem is stiff and grooved along its length, frequently streaked pink or red, most visibly at the leaf joints. Height varies enormously with the ground - ankle-high on a trampled path, well over a metre on a manure heap.
Tiny green flowers in dusty spikes
Flowers have no petals and no colour to look for: they are minute, green and mealy, packed into dense clusters on leafy spikes at the top of the stem and in the upper leaf joints from June. The whole flowering head reads as a dusty green tassel.
Seed spikes drying to brittle, dusty clusters
Each flower gives a single lens-shaped black seed wrapped in a papery calyx. Once the spikes lose their green and snap rather than bend, whole heads can be rubbed between the palms and the chaff winnowed off.
Upright annual habit on bare, fertile ground
Grows from a single stem to knee height or well above, branching in the upper half, and dies off with the first hard frosts. It appears in quantity on freshly turned or manured soil rather than in closed turf or woodland.
No smell when the leaves are crushed
Crushed foliage is bland and faintly dusty. A strong smell of rotting fish means Stinking Goosefoot (Chenopodium vulvaria), a lower, sprawling relative that is unpleasant rather than dangerous.
Flowers with no coloured petals or paired bracts
The flowers are green, five-parted and petal-less. Oraches (Atriplex species), which share the same ground and mealy look and are equally edible, enclose each seed between two flattened diamond-shaped bracteoles.
Updated 2026-08-08T12:03:24.117Z · Added 2026-08-05T19:58:11.325Z
Part of the shared Foragers Log catalogue · Other