Mystery plant??

[caithnesscrofter]

These were mystery seeds and now I have a mystery plant. Anyone?

[Mainer in Exile]

It looks like fat hen aka goosefoot, Chenopodium album.

Cab at http://www.downsizer.net/ says:

The leaves are the bit you want; cook them down like spinach, and unlike all of the other wild leaves you CAN cook like spinach, these ones are better than spinach is! Or raw in salads, this is a versatile weed.

[farmerdrea]

Yep, fathen, of which there are many varieties. Your chooks/goats/ducks/rabbits/other livestock will love you for it, and it's also quite nice on salads. The only time it isn't safe to eat in quanity (like letting animals graze on it) is in a drought recovery period, as it can cause nitrogen poisoning. In spring, the young leaves have quite a nice taste to them. We always let patches of it grow and re-seed for feeding to the rabbits.

Cheers
Andrea
NZ

[Odsox]

Not necessarily fat hen.
If you bought or were given the seeds (as opposed to plants that just came up on their own) they could well be Quinoa.
I'm growing Quinoa for the first time this year and the plants are identical to fat hen.

At least I hope I'm not cultivating fat hen by mistake

[farmerdrea]

Quinoa is in the same family as fathen (both are chenopodiums), so you could be right. Only wy to find out is to let it go to seed. Quinoa was a very tall, pale pink to dark red seed head (depending on type), rather like a millet spray that you'd find in a pet store to feed your pet bird with.

I missed that you were given the seeds, so perhaps they are quinoa. Look it up on wikipedia - there are good photos of the seeds for you to compare.

Cheers
Andrea
NZ

[caithnesscrofter]

thanks for replies. don't think its quinoa. I'm growing quinoa in my garden and it doesn't look the same. could very well be fat hen!

[JustinFun]

We had loads of this plant germinate in shop-bought seed compost (which I was a bit miffed about). I grew on a few plants to see what they'd do, but have to confess I've let them die before I saw this thread! Oh well, I'll know next time.

[caithnesscrofter]

I think you probably answered the question justinfun. My bro-in-law swears they were tomato or eggplant looking seeds. Chances are the seeds were duds and the compost we planted them in produced the goosefoot

Cheers!.