Pigweed

Pollen Type: Weed

Cross-Reactivity: Careless Weed, Western Waterhemp, Spiny Pigweed

HS Allergy Extract: Pigweed, Red-Root

Family: Amaranthaceae

Genus/Species: Amaranthus retroflexus L.

Common Names: Red-Root Pigweed, Red-Root Amaranth

Distribution: Throughout the United States.

Locations: Typically found in cultivated soil in gardens and orchards. It’s also found in wet fields, roadside ditches, and waste areas. Pigweed, its common name, was termed because it grows where hogs are pasture-fed. Suggested as a highly nutritious forage crop, it does contain nitrates and oxalates which may be toxic to cattle if eaten in large quantities.

Pollination Method: Wind-pollinated

Pollinating Period: Summer & Fall

Description: Redroot Pigweed is a 1’-10’ tall upright annual weed. It’s stout, rough, and finely haired with ascending branches from the base and dense green flower clusters at the end of its stems. Its egg shaped leaves grow on alternate sides. In warm southern areas there is a prolonged pollinating period (March-November), but the peak is still late summer.

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