Isn't it beautiful? This is my home! No, I am not a soybean plant. I am a waterhemp weed! This field is a perfect home because I need full to partial sun, wet to moist soil, and soil that is loam or loam clay, but I will grow in silt; I just won't grow as tall. 

   Here I am! This is me! I am in the same family as pigweed. When you look at my leaves, you will see that they are glossy, lanceolate shaped, and alternate in their placement on my hairless stem. I come in all shapes and colors, ranging from yellowish-green, reddish-green to dark green. I have a tap root system that holds me in the ground on windy days. This is necessary because I can grow to be 8 ft tall!

   Though tall now, I was not always this big and strong. 

       I started as a little seed, as you can see. Here is a photo of my mom, my 250,000 siblings, and me. We are flat, round, shiny, and dark brown to black.

       My mom and dad both had flowers, which would make us a diecious plant. My dad's flower had five sepals and five stamens with no petals. He produced the pollen! My mom's flower had 1 or 2 sepals with an ovary with three feathery styles and no petals. She produced the ova! Their flowers are surrounded by 1-3 narrow bracts whose colors range from green to reddish-pink. In early summer, 24 hours after cross-pollination, my siblings and I became viable seeds! We will lay dormant all winter, waiting for spring.

   I germinate if I am under a super thin layer of dirt, and it is around 90 degrees Fahrenheit when in a lab. If I am in a cultivated field, it takes a couple of weeks. The days when I started to grow could not be found, but I will tell you how I grew.

   Once I am warm enough, about 45 degrees Fahrenheit, I start to grow. My radical is the first thing to emerge from my seed. It is my first root, and it starts to suck up water and nutrients. Once my radical is long enough, my hypocotyl starts to push my cotyledons up towards the soil. I have emerged after 8-10 weeks!

    After a few days, my forage leaves grow, my hypocotyl starts to straighten, and my radical is now called a primary root.  After a couple of days, my forage leaves grow even bigger, my hypocotyl is straight, I have an apex shoot, and I have started growing secondary roots.

I am getting so big!

   After I have had time to grow for a month and a half, I should start to flower. My bloom period begins in late summer or early fall, and I bloom for one to two months. Once my seeds are pollinated, they lie dormant until spring.