Common Orache is a slightly mealy annual plant found on open, arable, coastal and disturbed, waste ground over most of the country. Extremely variable, it grows to about 60 cm in height although it can also be quite prostrate and spreading. The stems are ridged, reddish and, both terminally and from the leaf axils, bear small, greenish flowers in long spikes from July to October. The upper leaves are lanceolate, the lower, triangular leaves having basal lobes which are forward-pointing, the leaves themselves tapering into the stalk. The diamond –shaped fruits lack knobbles or warts, which helps to distinguish it from Babington’s Orache. This is an introduced species belonging to the Chenopodiaceae family.
I first recorded this plant in Termon, Co Donegal in 1980 and photographed it in Gibletstown, Co Wexford in 2010.
If you are satisfied you have correctly identified this plant, please submit your sighting to the National Biodiversity Data Centre
