Chenopodium aristatum Linnaeus, Sp. Pl. 1: 221. 1753; C. minimum W. Wang & P. Y. Fu; C. sinense hort ex Moquin-Tandon; C. tibeticum A. J. Li; Teloxys aristata (Linnaeus) Moquin-Tandon.

Herbs annual, often tinged purple-red, usually appearing conic, 10-40 cm tall, glabrous. Stem erect, terete or with colored ribs, glabrous or slightly glandular pubescent, much branched. Petiole short; leaf blade linear to narrowly lanceolate, to 7 × 1 cm, base attenuate, merging into petiole, margin entire to indistinctly erose-dentate, apex acute to acuminate; midvein yellow-white. Compound dichasia borne in leaf axils from near base of plant and on upper part of branches, apical branchlets of inflorescence acicular. Flowers not pedunculate, bisexual. Perianth segments 5, spreading in fruit, narrowly elliptic, slightly fleshy abaxially, margin membranous, apex obtuse or abruptly acute. Utricle depressed, orbicular; pericarp pellucid, adnate to seed. Seed horizontal, depressed, ca. 1 mm in diam., rim margin truncate or with a rib. Fl. Aug-Sep, fr. Oct.

Several “microspecies” and infraspecific entities were proposed within this species (s.l.). These segregate taxa differ mostly in such variable characters as size of plant, degree of pubescence (glabrous to sparsely glandular pubescent), leaf shape (margin entire to serrate-dentate), and occasional presence of flowers on some terminal branches. These characters show no clear geographic pattern and thus cannot be considered specifically diagnostic. For example, glandular pubescent plants with an erose-serrate leaf margin (described as Chenopodium tibeticum) occur throughout the range of Dysphania aristata.

A weed, often in fields, sometimes in wastelands and on slopes. Hebei, Heilongjiang, Henan, Jilin, Nei Mongol, Ningxia, Qinghai, Shaanxi, Shandong, Shanxi, Sichuan, Xinjiang [Asia, SE Europe; introduced in North America].