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.