Lamb's quarters

Lamb's quarters is a fast-growing annual that reaches 1 to 2 metres tall, with diamond-shaped, mealy grey-green leaves coated in a fine white powder. Late in the season it bears dense spikes of small green flowers that ripen into tiny round seeds, about 1 to 1.5 millimetres across. They are shiny black or dark brown inside a papery husk, and one plant can make tens of thousands. The seeds are nutty and slightly bitter if the saponin coating is not washed away. They are collected by wild gatherers, ground into flour, popped or toasted, and in some places sold as a minor grain, though they are usually not found in shops.

Lamb's quarters is thought to be native to Europe and western Asia, and it has spread to nearly every temperate region of the world as a weed of disturbed ground and cultivated fields. It thrives in rich soils, and its presence often marks fertile land. The common name lamb's quarters derives from Lammas-tide, the harvest feast on 1 August, when it was gathered in medieval England. Fat hen refers to its use as poultry feed, while the genus name Chenopodium comes from Greek words meaning goose foot, after the leaf shape.

Seeds of Chenopodium album are among the oldest plant foods found in European archaeology. They were discovered in the stomach and intestines of Tollund Man, a man preserved in a Danish bog from around 2,300 years ago, together with other wild seeds, suggesting they were part of a ritual or everyday meal. The seeds also appear in Neolithic and Iron Age settlements across Europe, probably eaten as porridge or baked into flatbread.

In North America, Indigenous peoples harvested the greens and seeds, and relatives such as Chenopodium berlandieri were domesticated in the eastern woodlands long before maize became a main crop. In the Himalayas and northern India, the plant is called bathua, and farmers cultivate it for its leaves and for grain, which is ground to flour and cooked into chapati during fasts. In Mexico, relatives called quelites remain part of village diets.

In Europe, lamb's quarters was largely replaced by spinach and cereal crops, and it came to be viewed as a weed, though it was eaten in times of famine. During recent decades, foragers and chefs interested in wild foods have revived interest in its greens and seeds.

The seeds are gathered when ripe, rubbed from the plants, winnowed to remove husks, rinsed to remove bitter saponins and then toasted, boiled as porridge, ground into flour for flatbreads, or mixed with other flours. They can be popped like amaranth. The young leaves and shoots are cooked like spinach in dals, soups, pies and parathas, or eaten raw in small amounts in salads. In India bathua raita is a classic winter dish. The plant is also used as fodder for poultry and pigs. Seeds are sometimes sold for wild-food gardening and as seeds for sprouting.

Lamb's quarters leaves are notably rich in vitamins A, C and K, calcium and iron, and the seeds supply protein, fibre and minerals, like related pseudocereals. Nutritional analyses vary widely depending on plant and soil, so exact values are uncertain. Traditional medicine has used the plant for digestion and as a mild laxative or anthelmintic, but there is little modern clinical evidence. Eating it as an occasional seasonal green or seed grain is considered reasonable for most people.