Stinking goosefoot is a small, prostrate to ascending annual with stems up to 60 cm (2 ft) long, smelling strongly of rotten fish.

[3][4] Chenopodium vulvaria was traditionally a member of the plant family Chenopodiaceae (goosefoots), but genetic studies have shown that they are not distinct from the Amaranthaceae (amaranths) and so they are now combined.

[4] The name of the genus is derived from the Greek χήν (chen), "goose", and ποδίον (podion), "little foot", as a reference to the shape of the leaf.

[7] Indeed, the plant contains trimethylamine,[8][9] which has been suggested to be "the substance mainly responsible for the fishy odor often associated with bacterial vaginosis".

[13] Stinking goosefoot has not yet been assessed for its global status,[14] but in France Chénopode fétide is common in the south and generally has the status LC (least concern) in the Mediterranean départements, while in the north it is much rarer: in Picardy it is classified as CR (critically endangered), while it is VU (vulnerable) in Brittany, EN (endangered) in Alsace and Lower Normandy, and considered to be extinct in Upper Normandy.

Conservation actions included fencing its sites from rabbit grazing and rotovating the soil to create bare ground.

[17] By 2020 it was found to have returned to the whole of its original range, including Scotland, and its status has been changed to EN (endangered) and "archaeophyte", which usually means an introduction associated with farming or urbanisation.

[18] In Spain, stinking goosefoot is considered to be an annual therophyte of old fields, which is dispersed by ectozoochory (the seeds being attached to the skin or fur or feathers of animals).

[19] In Northern Europe, by contrast, it was historically often found in dung heaps, by the sides of roads, and at the bases of walls, leading to the conjecture that it is an archaeophyte which was frequently re-introduced from the south, by various (unknown) transport routes.

"[15] In central and eastern Europe the typical habitat for it is the Malva neglecta - Chenopodium vulvaria community, which occurs on roadside verges and disturbed and trampled soils.

[18][17] Its Ellenberg values in Britain are L = 7, F = 4, R = 7, N = 9, and S = 0, which show that it grows in full sunlight in places that are highly enriched with nitrogen, such as dung heaps and seabird roosts.

The larvae of Eupithecia simpliciata (Haworth), the plain pug, and Pelurga comitata (L.), dark spinach, both feed on the flowers and fruit.