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Days to maturity
Seasonal yields
Sow indoors · Direct sow · Transplant outdoors
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Plant · P-711
Kaniwa Pitseed
Chenopodium berlandieri
An annual pseudocereal in the goosefoot family grown for its edible seed and cooked leaves. Seed is toasted boiled into porridge or ground into flour; leaves and seed coat carry oxalates and saponins so raw quantities should stay modest and both are best rinsed or cooked before eating. A wild relative of cultivated quinoa though the two arose from separate domestication events on different continents. A now-extinct domesticated form of this species was a staple of the pre-maize Eastern Agricultural Complex in eastern North America. Tolerates sand loam and clay including saline and alkaline ground. Needs full sun; grows fastest with moderate moisture but is drought-tolerant once established. A fast-growing colonizer of disturbed soil - roadsides waste ground field edges river bottoms and coastal mudflats. Native and widespread across nearly all of North America south to central Mexico.
Record at a glance
Growing profile
- Sun
- Full Sun
- USDA zone
- USDA 4–10
- Soil
- Sand · Loam · Clay
- Moisture
- Dry · Moderate · Moist
Vertical layer
Herbaceous- Soil pH
- 5.6–7.8
- Plant type
- Annual
- Mature height
- 1.6–3.9 ft
- Mature spread
- 20 in
- Plant spacing
- 6–12 in
- Root type
- Tap
- Spread pattern
- Seed
Keep exploring
Similar plants
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Vigna angularis (Willd.) Ohwi & H.Ohashi
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African Eggplant
Solanum aethiopicum
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Agrimony
Agrimonia eupatoria
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Alfalfa
Medicago sativa
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Aloe Vera
Aloe vera
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Alsike Clover
Trifolium hybridum
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