Quail-Friendly Plants of the Midwest
Lambsquarters
- Chenopodium album
Forb
The main value of lambsquarters for quail is the brood cover provided by its upright growth and dense canopy.
Scott Sudkamp, Missouri Department of Conservation

Due to its upright growth structure and leafy canopy, lambsquarters' main benefit to bobwhites is brood habitat. It readily responds to disturbance. Leaves are triangular, with scalloped edges.
Scott Sudkamp, Missouri Department of Conservation

Numerous, rather nondescript flowers occur at the top of the plant.
Kevin Bradley, University of Missouri

Lambsquarters seeds are tiny, about 1 mm across. They are an occasional food source for quail. (scale divisions = 1 mm)
Fred Fishel, University of Missouri
Description
This species is commonly found in crop fields and other areas where the soil has been disturbed. It is rather nondescript. Leaves are triangular or kite-shaped, and their surfaces often have a powdery white appearance. Lambsquarters typically grows 2-6 feet tall.
Bloom period
May to October
Use by bobwhites
Lambsquarters' main value to quail is brood cover. It often occurs in dense stands on disturbed sites and has an open understory. Seeds are occasionally eaten as well, especially after snow has buried many other foods.
Contents
- How to use this guide
- Selected resources for bobwhite quail management
- Glossary
- Alfalfa
- American plum
- Barnyardgrass
- Beggar's lice
- Bidens
- Big bluestem
- Briars
- Broomsedge
- Crab grass
- Croton
- Dogwoods, shrub
- Eastern red cedar
- Elderberry, common
- False indigo
- Flowering spurge
- Foxtail
- Giant ragweed
- Goat's rue
- Grapes, wild
- Greenbrier
- Hairy lespedeza
- Hazelnut
- Huckleberry
- Illinois bundleflower
- Indian grass
- Jewelweed
- Lambsquarters
- Lespdeza, annual/Korean
- Little bluestem
- Milkpea
- Oaks
- Orchard grass
- Osage orange
- Panic grasses
- Partridge pea
- Paspalums
- Pigweed
- Poison ivy
- Pokeweed
- Possum haw
- Ragweed, common
- Roundhead lespedeza
- Sassafras
- Sensitive brier
- Sideoats grama
- Slender lespedeza
- Smartweed
- Sumacs
- Sunflower
- Switch grass
- Three-seeded mercury
- Timothy
- Trailing lespedezas
- Viburnum
- Wild bean
- Wild geranium
- Acknowledgments
- Photo credits
Related programs
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