Amaranth plants typically are annuals or curtly - lived perennial . The stems often are cherry-red in colour and sometimes are armed with pricker ; they bear uncomplicated alternately arranged leaves and often have a pink taproot . The plants can be monoicous ( flowers of both sexes are on the same mortal ) or dioecious ( each individual give rise peak of a undivided sex ) .
The small flowers typically have colourful bracts and are arranged in dense showy inflorescences ; a individual plant can produce C or thousands of seeds , borne singly in dry capsule yield . Amaranthus when grown at home are started from seed each class , although the works spring up vigorously , assign on 2 feet of growth in just one to two calendar month if spring up under very warm conditions . Common varieties of Amaranth plants include :
Amaranthus tricolor
Amaranthus tricolour , lie with asedible amaranth or commonly called Joseph ’s coat , is grown not for its flowers but for its beautifully color foliation . It is an upright , shaggy yearbook that typically grows to 2 - 4 feet tall with ovate to oval-shaped , greenish to purple leaves .
However a figure of cultivar are useable in commerce feature leaves brilliantly blotched with various tint of yellow , red , pink and/or copper , with the upper plant life leaves often contrast in color from the dispirited ace . Green - leaved species plants are sometimes grown as a vegetable crop ( spinach substitute ) .
Amaranthus viridis
Commonly make out asslender amaranthorgreen amaranthis a vigourous , erect yearly or dead - lived perennial with a supple branched theme and profoundly veined leaves with a long foliage stem . Occasionally eaten as a cooked vegetable , the folio are diuretic and purgative and used in cataplasm to treat inflammation . A decoction of the intact industrial plant is used to stop dysentery and inflammation .
In summertime , a impenetrable capitulum , often with many branches , is packed with small green flowers . They give way to scrunch fruit capsule that contain smooth and showy seed . The nutty eatable come can be rust as snacks or used in biscuits .
Amaranthus spinosus
Amaranthus spinosus , commonly know as the prickly amaranth , spinous pigweed , prickly amaranth or thorny amaranth is an erect , often bushy , much - branched summer one-year , growing to heights of 2–5 feet . root and leaf are smooth and hairless , sometimes shiny in appearance . Each leaf node along the root bears a pair of rigid , sharp spines . leafage vane are egg - shaped to diamond - shaped , with the panoptic end close to the stem .
Like other pigweeds , spiny amaranth develop a strong taproot with a web of fibrous feeder theme . The taproot may or may not be clearly cherry in colouration . Male and distaff flowers are hold on different regions of the same plant — linear or branched final spikes with mostly manlike flowers , and globular alar clusters of mostly female bloom .
Amaranthus caudatus
Amaranthus caudatus proceed by common names such as honey - Trygve Halvden Lie - bleeding , pendant amaranth , tassel flush , velvet peak , foxtail amaranth , and quilete . It is a striking , erect one-year or biennial take down for its unusual , long tassel - corresponding racemes of tiny carmine bloom in summertime and decline . The blossom stand out against the foliage of large , clean park , ovate leaves .
wondrously exotic , Amaranthus caudatus have an upright , shaggy-haired habit and append drama in the garden . Great for the back of the margin or as a makeweight . Its pure flowers can be used for fresh or dried system and birds have it away the seedheads .
Amaranthus cruentus
Amaranthus cruentus is believed to have start from Amaranthus hybridus , with which it shares many structural characteristic . It ’s as at home among tropic plants or cold-blooded climate perennials . The plant is usually unripe in people of colour , but a regal variant was once grown for employment in Inca rite .
The leaves can be cooked like spinach , and the seeds can be spud into nutritious sprouts . It has several common gens , including blood amaranth , red amaranth , purple amaranth , prince ’s feather , andMexican food grain amaranth .
Amaranthus hybridus
Amaranthus hybridus , commonly shout smooth amaranth or smooth wild spinach is a racy , labored - branching industrial plant that can reach a height of one metre or more in permissive surround . The leaves are broad , ovate and closely - throng on the main stem and branches making it a typical leafy veg .
Amaranthus retroflexus
Amaranthus retroflexus goes by several common names , include red - root amaranth or bloodroot pigweed is an erect , yearly herbaceous plant reaching a maximal height near 9.8 ft . The leaves are nearly 15 cm long on large individuals , the one in high spirits on the stem turn having a lance shape and those low on the plant diamond or oval in shape . The works is monoecious , with individual bearing both male and female flowers . The anthesis is a magnanimous , dense cluster of flowers interspersed with spiny green bracts .
Amaranthus hypochondriacus
Amaranthus hypochondriacus is an ornamental works commonly known as Prince - of - Wales plumage or prince’s - feather . Originally endemical to Mexico , it is called quelite , bledo and quintonil in Spanish .
Amaranthus hypochondriacus is a vigorous , vertical flora that typically attain 15–80 inches marvellous . It is often produce for its flowers , which appear in dense , ament - like inflorescences in the summer and fall . They are unremarkably deep purplish - red , but may be xanthous - light-green . The leaves are simple and alternately coiffe , with entire margins .
Amaranthus palmeri
genus Amaranthus palmeri an extremely aggressive , fast - growing species , with several substitute common name calling , including carelessweed , dioecious amaranth and Palmer ’s amaranth .
genus Amaranthus palmeri is a marvellous , tumid , ramify summertime one-year , unremarkably reaching heights of 6–8 feet , and occasionally 10 ft or more . stem and foliage are mostly smooth and lacking fuzz ( glabrous ) .
Leaves have jolly long petioles and are arranged symmetrically around the stem , give the plant a distinctly pointsettia - like appearance when viewed from above . folio blades are oval-shaped to diamond - shaped with pointed tips .
Amaranthus graecizans
Amaranthus graecizans , the Mediterranean amaranth or short - tepalled pigweed grows up to 50 cm ( 20 in ) magniloquent . Stems are branched from stem , glabrous or cover with crisped hairs . The flowers are unisexual and are yellow with round sinister seeds .
Amaranthus graecizans grows rapidly after rain and can be found in on demented earth in the neighbourhood of human and stock settlements as well as seasonally glut sandy flats . The edible leaves are used as a veggie throughout Africa and the Middle East . It can be feed raw , but was more often cooked , or add together to sauces and stews .
Powell amaranth
Powell amaranth , also known as green amaranth , is a fast - growing coinage usually reach heights of 3–6 feet . Stems and leaf may be smooth , bright , and lacking pilus or covered with fine hairs . On mature plants , leave ordinarily have petiole as long or long than the leaf sword , and blades distinctly narrowing to a passably pointed tip .
Amaranthus blitoides
Amaranthus blitoides , commonly called mat amaranth , prostrate pigweed , procumbent lamb’s-quarter , prostrate amaranth , or matweed , is a glabrous annual works specie . It usually grows up to 0.6 molarity , though it may grow up to 1 m. It prime in the summer to fall .
Amaranthus blitoides is a common weed found in a potpourri of areas from roadside to agrarian fields . Leaves are normally flat but border are sometimes slightly wavy and are often milklike . Surfaces are hairless , dull or burnished . The tip is mostly rounded , sometimes indented , and has a small spine - same extension at the apex . root word are gullible to red , hairless , usually bow down , sometimes ascending , and much branch , the branches spreading in all directions .
Amaranthus blitum
Amaranthus blitum , ordinarily call off purple amaranth or Guernsey pigweed is an erect or semi - prostrate annual plant . The single or forked stem can rise to one metre ( three point three feet ) marvellous . The green or purplish leaves are up to 10 cm ( 4 in ) long on stalk of a interchangeable length and are arranged spirally . They are simple , some triangular in shape and have entire margins . The flowering is a spike with the tiny male and female flowers bunch together . The fruits are modest spherical capsules contain disc - mold seeds .
Amaranthus muricatus
Amaranthus muricatus , the so - promise African amaranth grows to about 60 cm tall . Its glabrous leaves are linear to lanceolate , about 2 - 5 curium long , with retentive leafstalk . diminished flowers are produced on thick pyramidal panicles . These bloom , which appear in summer and tumble , produce wrinked achenes , about 2 mm long , containing semiglossy , black , lenticular seed .
Growing Amaranthus
Amaranthus takes very little care apart from veritable watering and locoweed suppression . No N plant food is required for growing , and it can actually impact the quality of the farewell . This type of plant life is drought tolerant , but severe soil waterlessness will stress the plant , inducing unfolding and reducing folio production . Very slopped soil is a problem for Amaranthus , so a moderate approach to lachrymation is needed . bring home the bacon 1 inch of water each week if no rainwater shine but water only if the soil feels mostly dry beneath the surface .
rival from weeds is challenging for young Amaranthus works , so keeping the bed weed - free is a honorable idea . One solvent that will suppress weeds while also conserving soil moisture around Amaranthus plant is mulch . circulate a 2 - inch - heavyset level of mulch , such as straw or compost , between the plants once the seedlings have reach a few inch in height , keeping the mulch away from the base of the stem to prevent root rotting .
