Beauties of Red Root and Lamb's Quarters

     Red root and lamb's quarters are abundant "weeds" in certain fields and roadsides in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania, and throughout most of North America.  Having adapted long ago to farmland in Europe, these common, annual plants, and their associate, foxtail grass, create patches and strips of themselves on soil that had been disturbed then abandoned.  Those pioneer plants hold down bare soil and provide food and cover for certain types of wildlife until other vegetation becomes established. 
     These weeds also grow commonly in pumpkin, gourd, cantaloupe and other, similar kinds of crops.  There they can't be removed by farmers because the crops in those fields grow tangles of vines: Removing the weeds would ruin the vines.   
     Red root and lamb's quarters grow from seed early in May and attain a height of up to five feet by autumn.  During summer, their green leaves and stems are eaten by a small variety of grasshoppers, that are, in turn consumed by some species of birds, plus striped skunks, American and common toads, praying mantises and other kinds of adaptable farmland creatures.  Big, black and yellow garden spiders catch them in their large webs.
     But the most spectacular beauties of these two types of tall plants is their colored leaves, stems and seeds in autumn, especially when seen with the sun shining behind them.  Together they add much beauty to fields and roadsides in fall.  Many leaves, stems and seed clusters of red root become red.  And the leaves of lamb's quarters are yellow or red.      
     These weeds have an added beauty in winter; seed-eating birds that feast on their numerous, tiny seeds.  Savannah and tree sparrows and horned larks are the birds most likely to feed on the seeds of these plants in fields and along roadsides, particularly after a deep snow fall when these plants still
protrude above the snow cover, making the seeds still available to the birds.
     Though considered to be weeds by most people, red root and lamb's quarters have many values to the environment and wildlife.  And they have autumn beauties that we can enjoy.