Good King Henry, allgood, fat-hen, wild spinach

Stems erect to ascending, unbranched, 2.5-7.5 dm, somewhat viscid and farinose. Leaves nonaromatic; petiole 1-12 cm; blade triangular to broadly hastate, 4.5-10 × 3-9 cm, base truncate, cordate, or hastate, margins entire, apex acute (acuminate), adaxially sparsely farinose. Inflorescences: dense glomerules sessile on terminal and axillary spikes, spikes 5-19 cm; glomerules 3-5 mm diam., flowers developing at about same time; bracts absent. Flowers: perianth segments connate into 0.4-0.6 mm tube, lobes oblong or elliptic, 0.8-1.5 × 0.5-1.1 mm, apex obtuse, rounded or truncate, scarcely abaxially keeled throughout, glabrous, not covering fruit at maturity; stamens (4-)5; stigmas 2-4. Achenes obovoid; pericarp adherent, ± smooth. Seeds obovoid or rotund, 1.5-2 mm in diam. margins not rounded; seed coat black, rugose.

Fruiting early summer-fall. Waste areas and cultivated ground; 0-200 m; introduced; Alta., N.B., N.S., Ont., Que.; Conn., Ill., Ky., Maine, Mass., Mich., N.J., N.Y., Pa., R.I.; native to mountains of Europe.

Chenopodium bonus-henricus is widely grown throughout the temperate regions, occasionally escaping.