English: Russian pigweed; Upright axyris.
Chinese: Zhouli.
Region: Eastern Europe; Asia, Altai to northern Tien-Shan mountains; invasive in northern North America.
Habitat: very fine-grained mineral soil; waste or rough fragments of stone, brick, concrete; dry roadsides, waste places, open flat habitats, grassland.
Genus: 7 species.
BotanyHerb; annual; monoecious.
Root: taproot.
Stem: 20–80 cm tall; rigidly upright.
Leaves: alternate; lower have short petioles, narrowly oval to long-pointed shape; upper leaves are narrowly lance-like to egg shaped, and attached directly to the stems or branches without petioles; stem leaves are much bigger than branch leaves; serrated with slightly bent or curved backward or downward edges.
Inflorescence: male flowers grow on the top of stem in the form of slim spike; female flowers grow from the leaf axils below the male flowers.
Fruits: oval; reddish; dry, with thin pericarps; some are winged on one side and flattened, and will germinate rapidly: others are wingless, dormant; flowering in July and August.