Citation: L., Sp. Pl. 218 (1753).

Derivation: Greek chen, goose; podos, little foot.

Synonymy: Not Applicable

Common name: Goosefoot.

Description:
Annual or perennial herbs, occasionally weak shrubs, mealy with minute sessile vesicular hairs which may form a scaly covering, or with glandular hairs, or glabrous; leaves alternate, flat, entire or dissected.

Flowers small, usually clustered, axillary or paniculate, bisexual or unisexual; perianth 3-5-lobed, sometimes hardened in fruit; stamens 1-5, free or united at the base into a saucer-shaped disk; stigmas 2 or 3.

Pericarp membranous or rarely succulent; seed lenticular to subglobular, horizontal to vertical; testa crustaceous; embryo annular to horseshoe-shaped.

Distribution:  A cosmopolitan genus of over 70 species; 23 are recorded from Australia of which 14 are considered endemic.

Biology: No text

Key to Species:

1. Plants somewhat mealy (not glandular)
2. Shrubs
3. Fruit dry
4. Spinescent shrub; leaves leathery, spathulate, to 3 cm long	C. nitrariaceum 13.
4. Unarmed soft-wooded shrub; leaves papery, oblong-elliptic to hastate, to 4 cm long	C. auricomum 3.
3. Fruit succulent
5. Stigmas strongly penicillate	C. gaudichaudianum 8.
5. Stigmas papillose	C. curvispicatum 5.
2. Herbs
6. Leaves variously toothed
7. Seed deeply sculptured	C. erosum 7.
7. Seed smooth or minutely pitted
8. Perianth glabrous; seed horizontal or erect; perianth 3-5-lobed	C. glaucum 9.
8. Perianth mealy; seed horizontal; perianth 5-lobed
9. Seed sharply keeled, finely pitted, dull; pericarp persistent	C. murale 12.
9. Seed bluntly keeled, smooth to striate or weakly furrowed; pericarp readily detached
10. Leaves considerably longer than broad, usually more than 3 cm long	C. album 1.
10. Leaves about as long as broad, usually less than 3 cm long	C. opulifolium 14.
6. Leaves entire or lobed
11. Plant smelling of rotting fish
12. Perianth-segments united to near the apex	C. vulvaria 17.
12. Perianth-segments free except near the base	C. desertorum 6.
11. Plant not smelling of rotting fish
13. Erect annual; leaves mostly over 3 cm long, with a thin mealy indumentum; panicle large	C. album 1.
13. Prostrate to erect, predominantly perennial; leaves usually under 2 cm long, entire; panicle to 5 cm long	C. desertorum 6.
1. Plant pubescent or glandular, not mealy
14. Stamens 1 or 2; seeds lenticular, erect; leaves simple
15. Perianth-segments strongly crested
16. Perianth rostrate at the apex; perianth-segments free	C. cristatum 4.
16. Perianth truncate at the apex; perianth-segments united	C. truncatum 16.
15. Perianth-segments rounded to acute on the back
17. Perianth-segments firmly united in the lower half, completely covering the fruit, usually black	C. melanocarpum 10.
17. Perianth-segments free to near the base, not completely covering the fruit, white	C. pumilio 15.
14. Stamens 5; seed horizontal to erect; leaves simple or pinnatisect
18. Leaves serrate; seed horizontal to oblique	C. ambrosioides 2.
18. Leaves pinnatisect; seed erect	C. multifidum 11.

Author: Not yet available