Sure enough, one month later, when it began to bloom, it confirmed its pigweed identity. When it comes to plant identification, leaf characteristics are notoriously deceiving.

This photo shows a variety of pigweed species that germinated following extraction from commercial bird feed mixes. Photo credit: Mindy Ward of Penton Media view more ...

Chong sent a picture of a plant for which he sought identification. I told him it looked like pigweed, but we needed to see it flower before making a positive identification.