This extremely common annual plant is native to tropical America and has been naturalized in much of North America for many decades. Most of the time it is an agricultural and garden weed or found growing in waste places. I have pulled up many in my time or hoed the young seedlings in vegetable or flower gardens. However, all parts of the plant are edible for human beings, especially the young leaves and little black seeds. In other words, it can be a vegetable or seed provider. It gets its name of Pigweed in that it has often been feed for pigs, though sometimes toxic to cattle, causing bloat. It usually grows about 3 to 6 feet high. It forms a reddish, shallow taproot and the lower stem is usually reddish. Its leaves are rather dull green with long petioles. The stems are rough hairy. The small green flowers are in dense panicle clusters and each flower is surrounded by three spiny bracts. The plants produce lots of shiny black egg-shaped seeds that are notched at the narrow end. The seeds can persist for about 40 years in the soil.

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