Blitum capitatum

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Strawberry blite
Chenopodium capitatum Strawberry Blite 2048px.jpg
Scientific classification Red Pencil Icon.png
Kingdom: Plantae
Clade: Tracheophytes
Clade: Angiosperms
Clade: Eudicots
Order: Caryophyllales
Family: Amaranthaceae
Genus: Blitum
Species:
B. capitatum
Binomial name
Blitum capitatum
L.

Strawberry blite (Blitum capitatum, [1] syn. Chenopodium capitatum) is an edible annual plant, also known as blite goosefoot , strawberry goosefoot, strawberry spinach, Indian paint, and Indian ink.

Contents

It is native to most of North America throughout the United States and Canada, including northern areas. It is considered to be endangered in Ohio. It is also found in parts of Europe and New Zealand.

Fruit are small, pulpy, bright red and edible, resembling strawberries, though their taste is more bland. [2] The juice from the fruit was also used as a red dye by native North Americans. The fruits contain small, black, lens-shaped seeds that are 0.7–1.2 mm long. [3] The greens contain vitamins A and C; they are edible raw when young or as a potherb. [2] If raw they should be eaten in moderation as they contain oxalates. The seeds may be toxic in large amounts. [4]

Strawberry blite is found in moist mountain valleys.

Related Research Articles

<i>Chenopodium album</i> Species of flowering plant in the goosefoot family Chenopodiaceae

Chenopodium album is a fast-growing weedy annual plant in the genus Chenopodium. Though cultivated in some regions, the plant is elsewhere considered a weed. Common names include lamb's quarters, melde, goosefoot, wild spinach and fat-hen, though the latter two are also applied to other species of the genus Chenopodium, for which reason it is often distinguished as white goosefoot. Chenopodium album is extensively cultivated and consumed in Northern India as a food crop known as bathua.

<i>Blitum bonus-henricus</i> Species of flowering plant

Blitum bonus-henricus, also called Good-King-Henry, poor-man's asparagus, perennial goosefoot, Lincolnshire spinach, Markery, English mercury, or mercury goosefoot, is a species of goosefoot which is native to much of central and southern Europe.

Chenopodioideae Subfamily of flowering plants

The Chenopodioideae are a subfamily of the flowering plant family Amaranthaceae in the APG III system, which is largely based on molecular phylogeny, but were included - together with other subfamilies - in family Chenopodiaceae in the Cronquist system. Food species comprise Spinach, Good King Henry, several Chenopodium species, Orache, and Epazote. The name is Greek for goosefoot, the common name of a genus of plants having small greenish flowers.

<i>Chenopodium</i> Genus of flowering plants in the family Amaranthaceae

Chenopodium is a genus of numerous species of perennial or annual herbaceous flowering plants known as the goosefoots, which occur almost anywhere in the world. It is placed in the family Amaranthaceae in the APG II system; older classification systems, notably the widely used Cronquist system, separate it and its relatives as Chenopodiaceae, but this leaves the rest of the Amaranthaceae polyphyletic. However, among the Amaranthaceae, the genus Chenopodium is the namesake member of the subfamily Chenopodioideae.

<i>Frangula californica</i> Species of tree

Frangula californica is a species of flowering plant in the buckthorn family native to western North America. It produces edible fruits and seeds. It is commonly known as California coffeeberry and California buckthorn.

<i>Chenopodium berlandieri</i> Species of edible flowering plant

Chenopodium berlandieri, also known by the common names pitseed goosefoot, lamb's quarters, and huauzontle (Nahuatl) is an annual herbaceous plant in the family Amaranthaceae.

<i>Oxybasis rubra</i> Species of flowering plant

Oxybasis rubra, common names red goosefoot or coastblite goosefoot, is a member of the genus Oxybasis, a segregate of Chenopodium. It is native to North America and Eurasia. It is an annual plant.

Blite could refer to any one of the following plants:

<i>Chenopodiastrum murale</i> Species of flowering plant

Chenopodiastrum murale, is a species of plant in the family Amaranthaceae known by the common names nettle-leaved goosefoot, Australian-spinach, salt-green, and sowbane. This plant is native to Europe and parts of Asia and northern Africa, but it is widespread worldwide, particularly in tropical and subtropical areas due to the ease of it being introduced. It is a common weed of fields and roadsides.

<i>Sambucus racemosa</i> Species of plant

Sambucus racemosa is a species of elderberry known by the common names red elderberry and red-berried elder.

<i>Malva neglecta</i> Species of flowering plant

Malva neglecta is an annual growing to 0.6 m (2 ft). It is known as common mallow in the United States and also as buttonweed, cheeseplant, cheeseweed, dwarf mallow, and roundleaf mallow. This plant is often consumed as a food, with its leaves, stalks and seed all being considered edible. This is especially true of the seeds, which contain 21% protein and 15.2% fat.

<i>Blitum californicum</i> Species of flowering plant

Blitum californicum is a species of flowering plant in the amaranth family known by the common names California goosefoot and (ambiguously) "Indian lettuce".

<i>Chenopodium atrovirens</i> Species of flowering plant

Chenopodium atrovirens is a species of flowering plant in the amaranth family known by the common names pinyon goosefoot and dark goosefoot.

Chenopodium desiccatum is a species of flowering plant in the family Amaranthaceae known by the common names aridland goosefoot and slimleaf goosefoot.

<i>Dysphania</i> (plant) Genus of flowering plants

Dysphania is a plant genus in the family Amaranthaceae, distributed worldwide from the tropics and subtropics to warm-temperate regions.

Chenopodium cycloides is a species of flowering plant in the family Amaranthaceae known by the common name sandhill goosefoot. It is native to the south-central United States.

<i>Blitum</i> Genus of flowering plants

Blitum is a genus of flowering plants in the amaranth family Amaranthaceae, subfamily Chenopodioideae. It is closely related to genus Spinacia. Its 12 species were traditionally placed in the genera Chenopodium, Monolepis, or Scleroblitum. The species of genus Blitum occur in Asia, Europe, North Africa, the Americas, and Australia.

<i>Oxybasis</i> Genus of plants

Oxybasis is a flowering plant genus from the subfamily Chenopodioideae of the family Amaranthaceae. It was first described in 1841, and newly used since 2012 for five species that were traditionally grouped into genus Chenopodium. They occur in Europe, Asia, North Africa and America.

References

  1. Susy Fuentes-Bazan, Pertti Uotila, Thomas Borsch: A novel phylogeny-based generic classification for Chenopodium sensu lato, and a tribal rearrangement of Chenopodioideae (Chenopodiaceae). In: Willdenowia 42, 2012, S. 17.
  2. 1 2 Angier, Bradford (1974). Field Guide to Edible Wild Plants. Harrisburg, PA: Stackpole Books. p. 216. ISBN   0-8117-0616-8. OCLC   799792.
  3. Johnson, Derek; Kershaw, Linda; MacKinnon, Andy; Pojar, Jim (1995). Plants of the Western Boreal Forest and Aspen Parkland. Lone Pine Publishing. ISBN   1-55105-058-7.
  4. "Strawberry-blite (Chenopodium capitatum)". Northern Bushcraft. Retrieved 27 April 2011.

Sources