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Chenopodium giganteum; photograph author not stated, no rights reserved CC0author not stated, no rights reserved · observed growing wild · 2026-08-08

Chenopodium giganteum D.Don

Tree spinach; Tree Spinnach; Magentaspreen

Amaranthaceae · Primorye, Manchuria +5

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Chenopodium giganteum, photograph (c) Owen and Carol Fawcett., some rights reserved (CC BY)Chenopodium giganteum, photograph author not stated, no rights reservedChenopodium giganteum, photograph author not stated, no rights reservedChenopodium giganteum, photograph author not stated, no rights reservedChenopodium giganteum, photograph author not stated, no rights reservedChenopodium giganteum, photograph author not stated, no rights reserved 64 photographs ›
Habitat figuresfrom few records
Coldest month, mean nightly low
-8.7°C
Jan at the habitat, not a floor; extremes not used (the weather cell's ground is too far off) CHELSA
Warmest month, mean daily high
23°C
Jul and Aug at the habitat CHELSA
Rain a year (median across the range)
1,512mm
12 months of 25 mm or more in the median year CHELSA
Open-sky light
17–42DLI
Lowest to highest month (DLI) CHELSA
The year in your months, northern hemisphere
  1. Jan
  2. Feb
  3. Mar
  4. Apr
  5. May
  6. Jun
  7. Jul
  8. Aug
  9. Sep
  10. Oct
  11. Nov
  12. Dec
Wet summers: the rain comes May to September, read as a summer growing season. rain rule, CHELSA
Northern hemisphere unless you set your site. The chart is in the habitat's months.

From few records: 6 records in 6 grid cells. The records.

Summary

Chenopodium giganteum, also known as tree spinach, is an annual, upright many-branched forb with a stem diameter of up to 5 cm at the base, that can grow to a height of up to 3 m.

Quoted from Wikipedia, "Chenopodium giganteum", CC BY-SA 4.0.

Cultivation

Seasons

The rain rule reads a summer growing season: 70% of the median year's rain (1,020 mm of 1,427 mm) falls in May to September, warmer than the year (wet-season mean 18.1 °C against a yearly mean of 9.7 °C). Months are the habitat's, northern hemisphere; shifted six months for a southern-hemisphere collection: November to March.

Rain

1,427 mm in the median year at the habitat, 1,020 mm of it May to September. Wettest month July at 325 mm, driest month November at 26 mm. Across the grid cells of the range the year's total runs 685 mm to 2,069 mm, the 10th to 90th percentile of each cell's own year. The median of the cells' own yearly totals, 1,512 mm, is the year's rain at the top of the page; the 1,427 mm here is the median year's, the twelve monthly medians added, which the rain rule reads. Habitat calendar, northern hemisphere; median year across the grid cells of the range, CHELSA.

Light

Open sky over the habitat: 17 to 42 mol/m²/day across the year (daily light integral, median year across the grid cells of the range, CHELSA; the lowest 10th-percentile month across the cells is 14, the highest 90th-percentile month 47).

Warmth and air
Temperature

Monthly means: the coldest month's mean nightly low -8.7 °C in January (across the grid cells of the range -12.7 °C to -6.7 °C), the warmest month's mean daily high 23.3 °C in July (median year across the grid cells of the range, CHELSA). Cold floor: none read. The nearest figure is -8.7 °C, the coldest month's mean nightly low, January, in the median year (CHELSA); a month's mean of its nightly lows is warmer than the nights a floor is read from. The daily extremes were read at a weather cell whose ground is too far above or below the typical spot to correct for, and are not used.

Humidity

Relative humidity at the habitat: 48 to 67% across the year (monthly means, median year across the grid cells of the range, CHELSA). A figure about the air, saying nothing about how the plant takes water.

How this section is made

Each card states this species' habitat figures with their sources, and what two fixed rules read from them; nothing here says what the plant does, wants or tolerates. The rules · the terms.

Seasons. Read from the median year of CHELSA monthly rainfall and mean temperature across the grid cells of the range: the rain rule takes the smallest set of months carrying 70% of the rain and calls it winter when its mean is more than half a degree below the year's, summer when more than that above, and neither in between; the temperature rule, used only under 120 mm, names the cooler six months when they are at least a degree cooler than the other six. Months are shifted for the other hemisphere only where the temperature curve moves 4 °C or more and the habitat lies 10° or more from the equator. A reading of the curves, not an observation of the plant.

Rain. CHELSA monthly precipitation, median year across the grid cells of the range. The rain that falls where the species is recorded; nothing about how the plant takes water.

Light. CHELSA shortwave radiation at each envelope cell, a daily-mean flux taken to a daily total and converted at 2.07 mol of PAR per MJ. The sky over the habitat, measured; what reaches a plant under a rock, a shrub or a shade cloth is not.

Temperature. CHELSA monthly means, median year across the grid cells of the range. No cold floor is read without a daily extremes series; the coldest month's mean nightly low named in its sentence is not one. Not a measured survival limit for any plant in a pot.

Humidity. CHELSA relative humidity, median year across the grid cells of the range.

Climate across the habitat

From few records: this habitat climate is read from 6 records in 6 grid cells; a page says so under 12 records or 5 cells, and shows the figures as read.

Habitat months, northern hemisphere

Habitat climate of Chenopodium giganteum through the yearWarmest months July and August, mean daily high 23 °C; coldest month January, mean nightly low -8.7 °C; 1,427 mm of rain in the median year (the twelve monthly medians added). Medians across the range, from CHELSA. Habitat months, northern hemisphere.-20°-10°0°10°20°30°frost°C · day and nightcold quarter0100200300400500mm rainDLI 17–42RH 48–67%JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
day night rain medians and 10th–90th percentile across 6 habitat cells, CHELSA cold quarter: the three months around the coldest month's mean nightly low DLI, mol/m²/dayRH %each on its own scale
Figures by month
JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
Day °C3 / -1–54 / 2–78 / 7–1215 / 13–1819 / 16–2322 / 19–2723 / 19–2823 / 19–2720 / 17–2416 / 14–1810 / 7–135 / 1–9
Night °C-9 / -13–-7-7 / -10–-5-2 / -5–03 / -1–78 / 3–1313 / 7–1816 / 12–2116 / 12–2111 / 7–164 / 0–10-1 / -4–2-6 / -9–-3
Rain mm67 / 5–12566 / 8–14381 / 15–17872 / 28–11791 / 54–117118 / 98–165325 / 188–470305 / 169–422181 / 69–22859 / 32–7526 / 14–4936 / 6–70
DLI19 / 17–2425 / 23–3032 / 30–3739 / 35–4442 / 38–4740 / 37–4332 / 29–3330 / 28–3130 / 27–3327 / 23–3320 / 17–2717 / 14–23
RH %50 / 48–5551 / 49–5452 / 49–5451 / 49–5553 / 50–5758 / 55–6267 / 62–6967 / 62–7061 / 57–6353 / 52–5749 / 48–5648 / 46–55

The daily extremes were not used: the correction for elevation, -1667 m, is beyond the 1,000 m either way that a lapse rate is applied over, so the weather cell's ground is other terrain than the typical spot's. So no cold floor is read for this species, and the coldest month's mean nightly low is not taken as one. What that cell gave, so corrected, over 44 years: absolute minimum -20.7 °C, 1st-percentile night -13.0 °C.

How this section is made
Each figure is the median across the 6 grid cells holding the 6 in-range records, with the 10th–90th percentile span across those cells after the slash where it differs. A dash is a month one or more of those cells has no figure for in the grid (a variable CHELSA does not carry there), so no median is taken rather than one over fewer cells. Extremes and elevation were read at a typical spot in the range, cell 1159:5146 (32.025, 77.325). Normals: CHELSA V2.1 1981–2010 climatology, 0.05° cells (each the mean of ~36 1 km pixels). Across the range: median and 10th–90th percentile of each month across the 6 distinct grid cells holding 6 of the 6 in-range records; extremes and elevation at the typical cell 1159:5146 (its coldest month's mean nightly low nearest the median across cells); its position is the cell centre. Extremes: NASA POWER (MERRA-2) daily 1981–2024, cell 32.00_77.500, lapse-corrected -1667 m at 6.5 °C/km. Elevation: ETOPO 2022, 2318 m (cell mean).

Natural habitat

Native range as published by WCVP; the marker is where the records are densest and decides nothing: the climate was read across the cells of the in-range records placed well enough to read one, not at the marker.
Openly licensed records inside the range, framed on where they fall.
NativePrimorye, Manchuria, China North-Central, Tibet, East Himalaya, Nepal, West Himalaya · introduced: Great Britain, Austria, Germany, France, Albania, Greece, Italy, Kriti, Sicilia, Algeria, Egypt, Libya, Morocco, Tunisia, Canary Is., Madeira, Zimbabwe, Cape Provinces, Free State, Swaziland, Northern Provinces, East Aegean Is., Iran, China South-Central, Inner Mongolia, Japan, Korea, Taiwan, India, Philippines, New Zealand North, New Zealand South, Mexico Northwest, Cuba, Argentina Northeast, Argentina Northwest · regions are the level-3 units of the World Geographical Scheme for Recording Plant Distributions, as Kew's World Checklist records ranges, some under historical names such as Yugoslavia or Czechoslovakia (how).
Map marker33.769, 106.088 · in the densest population, 6 records (17% of those in range)
Kew's description“annual” · “temperate” · quoted from WCVP, RBG Kew (CC BY 4.0); not derived here
Evidence usedThe map marker rests on all 36 georeferenced records inside the native range; the climate across the range on the 6 of them placed to within 10 km; the map shows only the 14 openly licensed ones, which alone would put the marker 2074 km away. 1353 records outside the WCVP native range not used. Under a dozen records behind the climate. 30 in-range records are placed to worse than 10 km, or with no stated accuracy (admitted only as a person's observation to three decimals), and stay on the map but off the climate.
How this section is made
The map marker: the openly licensed record nearest the middle of the densest 1° population of the 36 in-range records; it decides nothing. Records outside the native range, living specimens and records marked introduced are not used; which records count.

Photographs

Chenopodium giganteum, photograph 1did not loadChenopodium giganteum, photograph 2did not loadChenopodium giganteum, photograph 3did not loadChenopodium giganteum, photograph 4did not loadChenopodium giganteum, photograph 5did not loadChenopodium giganteum, photograph 6did not load

Photographs: (c) Owen and Carol Fawcett., some rights reserved (CC BY); author not stated, no rights reserved · CC0 (5).

Similar habitat climate The 6 nearest by mean daily high, mean nightly low and rain, month by month. How.

Persicaria nepalensis Persicaria nepalensis Nepalese smartweed Photo: CC BY, Jaime McGuiganDryopteris stewartii Dryopteris stewartii Stewart's wood fern Photo: Public domain, DaderotLonicera vidalii Lonicera vidalii Vidal’s mountain honeysuckle Photo: CC BY-SA, Qwert1234Vincetoxicum × ascyrifolium Vincetoxicum × ascyrifolium Apocynaceae Photo: CC BY-SA, peganum from Small Dole, EnglandActaea podocarpa Actaea podocarpa American bugbane Photo: CC BY, Alaina KrakowiakGastrodia elata Gastrodia elata Tall Gastrodia Photo: CC BY, W Rao

Other Chenopodium 18 in the reference

Chenopodium album Chenopodium album Lambsquarters Photo: CC0, author not statedChenopodium allanii Chenopodium allanii Amaranthaceae Photo: CC BY, Liadan DickieChenopodium baccatum Chenopodium baccatum Coastal-saltbush Photo: CC BY, Millie BradyChenopodium berlandieri Chenopodium berlandieri Pitseed goosefoot Photo: CC0, author not statedChenopodium betaceum Chenopodium betaceum Striped Goosefoot Photo: CC0, ЕвгенияChenopodium candolleanum Chenopodium candolleanum Seaberry Saltbush Photo: CC BY, krumpiankingChenopodium ficifolium Chenopodium ficifolium Fig-leaved goosefoot Photo: CC BY, Jason GrantChenopodium fremontii Chenopodium fremontii Fremont's goosefoot Photo: CC BY, Rachel StringhamChenopodium nutans Chenopodium nutans Climbing-saltbush Photo: CC BY, plantlookymageeChenopodium oahuense Chenopodium oahuense Hawaiian Goosefoot Photo: CC BY, Neal KelsoChenopodium opulifolium Chenopodium opulifolium Grey goosefoot Photo: CC BY, Jo RobertsChenopodium parabolicum Chenopodium parabolicum Old-man-saltbush Photo: CC BY, Kym Nicolson all 19 ›

Names & registers

Also known as Atriplex bengalensis; Atriplex benghalensis; Atriplex hortensis var. benghalensis; Chenopodium album subsp. amaranthicolor; Chenopodium album var. centrorubrum and 11 more. (GBIF Backbone)

GBIFPOWOIPNIWFOWikidataWikipediaiNaturalist

The record

Family
Amaranthaceae
Described by
D.Don
Native to
Primorye, Manchuria, China North-Central +4
Wild records
36 in range · 14 open

Every figure here is derived from public data by a stated rule and names its source; nothing about this species is written for its page by a person or by AI, apart from the marked, credited quotations. How →

Where this page came from built 2026-10-21
GBIF species record gbif.species answeredasked 2026-10-21
GBIF synonyms gbif.synonyms answeredasked 2026-10-21
GBIF common names gbif.vernacular answeredasked 2026-10-21names fetched 2026-10-21
WCVP native range wcvp.distribution answeredas of 2026-06-04
GBIF occurrence records gbif.occurrences answeredas of 2026-10-21GBIF occurrence download https://doi.org/10.15468/dl.hbdw64, of 2026-10-21; 147 records within 1 km of a botanic garden, herbarium or zoo left out (102 at a botanic garden or arboretum, 23 at a herbarium, 22 at a zoo; Wikidata's list)
Habitat climate climate answeredasked 2026-10-21
Daily extremes (NASA POWER) climate.extremes answeredasked 2026-10-21NASA POWER (MERRA-2) daily 1981–2024, cell 32.00_77.500, lapse-corrected -1667 m at 6.5 °C/km; read, and set aside: the correction for elevation, -1667 m, is beyond the 1,000 m either way that a lapse rate is applied over, so the weather cell's ground is other terrain than the typical spot's, so no cold floor is shown
Wikidata wikidata answeredasked 2026-10-21
Wikipedia wikipedia answeredasked 2026-10-21
iNaturalist photographs, wild inat.photos.wild answeredasked 2026-10-22from iNaturalist's open data of 2026-09-27: research-grade observations with an open-licence photograph, the 24 whose photographs iNaturalist received last (the open data holds no votes); filled 2026-10-22
iNaturalist photographs, cultivated inat.photos.cultivated not asked
GBIF media gbif.media answeredasked 2026-10-21
OpenAlex papers openalex not askednot yet asked for this reference; a later fill takes the papers from OpenAlex's snapshot

Every source is recorded as having answered, reported nothing, refused, failed, not been asked, or answered twice where one answer is taken (“not taken: two items answered”), and, for a source asked when this page was built, when: the figures are as the source held them that day; a source read from a file (Kew's World Checklist, a GBIF download) says "as of" the file's day instead; a row carried from an earlier build of the page names that build instead. Only “nothing to report” is ever shown as an absence. Records came from 134 datasets via GBIF.org; each carries its own licence.

Cultifolio

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