Flora of North America species comparison

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Amaranthus cruentus

Amaranthaceae

blood amaranth, caterpillar amaranth, purple amaranth, red amaranth

amaranth family
Habit Plants almost glabrous or slightly pubescent distally, especially when young. Herbs, rarely subshrubs, annual or perennial; trichomes simple (branched in Tidestromia).
Stems

erect, green or reddish purple, branched distally, mostly in inflorescence, to nearly simple, 0.4–2 m. Leaves: petiole 1/2 as long as to ± equaling blade;

blade rhombic-ovate or ovate to broadly lanceolate, 3–15(–20) × 1.5–10(–15) cm, occasionally larger in robust plants, base cuneate to broadly cuneate, margins entire, plane, apex acute or subobtuse to slightly emarginate, with mucro.

without nodal spines (Amaranthus spinosus sometimes with paired nodal spines).
Leaves

alternate or opposite, exstipulate, usually petiolate;

blade margins entire (entire or serrulate in Iresine; entire, crispate, or erose in Amaranthus).
Bracts

narrowly spathulate, 2–3 mm, equaling or slightly longer than tepals, apex short-spinescent.

Inflorescences

terminal and axillary, erect, reflexed, or nodding, usually dark red, purple, or deep beet-red, less commonly almost green or greenish red, leafless at least distally, large and robust.

cymules arranged in spikes, panicles, thyrses, heads, glomerules, clusters, or racemes; each flower subtended by 1 bract and 2 bracteoles (latter sometimes 1 or absent in Amaranthus).
Flowers

bisexual or unisexual (plants then monoecious or dioecious), hypogynous, generally small or minute;

tepals mostly (1–)4–5 or absent, distinct or connate into cups or tubes, scarious, chartaceous, membranaceous, or indurate;

stamens 2–5, filaments basally connate into cups or tubes, rarely distinct, alternating with pseudostaminodes (appendages on staminal tubes) or not, anthers 2-locular with 1 line of dehiscence or 4-locular with 2 lines of dehiscence;

ovary superior, 1-locular;

ovules 1 or, rarely, 2–many;

style 1 or absent;

stigmas 1–3(–5).
Staminate flowers

at tips of inflorescences;

tepals 5;

stamens (4–)5.

Pistillate flowers

tepals 5, oblong to lanceolate, not clawed, equal or subequal, 1.5–3 mm, apex acute;

style branches erect or slightly reflexed;

stigmas 3.

Fruits

utricles, dry, dehiscent or not.
Seeds

usually white or ivory, with reddish or yellowish tint, sometimes dark brown to dark reddish brown, broadly lenticular to elliptic-lenticular, 1.2–1.6 mm diam., smooth or indistinctly punctate.

black, reddish brown, or brown, lenticular, subglobose or globose (rarely cylindric), usually small;

embryo peripheral, surrounding mealy perisperm.
Utricles

obovoid to elongate-obovoid, 2–2.5 mm, smooth or slightly rugose distally, dehiscence regularly circumscissile.

Amaranthus cruentus

Amaranthaceae
Phenology Flowering summer–fall.
Habitat Near places of cultivation
Distribution
from FNA
AZ; CA; CT; IL; IN; KY; MA; MD; ME; MI; NC; NE; NH; NJ; NY; OH; OR; PA; RI; SC; TX; UT; VT; WA; WI; WV; Central America; South America; cultivated widely
[WildflowerSearch map]
[BONAP county map]
Nearly worldwide; most abundant in tropics; subtropics; and warm-temperate regions; evidently absent from alpine and arctic regions
[BONAP county map]
Discussion

Amaranthus cruentus is cultivated as ornamental and pseudocereal almost worldwide from tropical to warm-temperate regions. While reported as naturalized in several states, most specimens identified as this species are referable to A. hybridus or other native species. Escaped plants of A. cruentus sometimes occur near places of cultivation (see note under A. caudatus). No attempt has been made to summarize distribution data for such escapes.

Amaranthus cruentus originated from A. hybridus (most probably in cultivation in Central America), with which it shares almost all major morphologic characteristics. Inclusion of cultivated forms in A. hybridus in a broad sense is thus rather justified. Cultivated species traditionally have been treated as separate taxa in horticultural and agricultural literature, and we prefer to maintain the current convenient usage of these names.

(Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.)

Genera ca. 65, species ca. 900 (12 genera, 80 species in the flora).

Centers of diversity for Amaranthaceae are southwestern North America, Central America, South America, and Africa south of the Sahara Desert. Generic limits are not well defined in some groups; fewer than 60 or more than 70 genera could be recognized.

Some species occur in severe habitats such as sandy, calcareous, gypseous, saline, or serpentine soils in deserts, semideserts, and seashores. Some species are weedy, including the major agricultural weeds in Amaranthus. Some species are cultivated as ornamentals, particularly Amaranthus caudatus (love-lies-bleeding), A. hypochondriacus (prince’s-feather), A. tricolor (Joseph’s-coat), Celosia cristata (cockscomb), and Gomphrena globosa (globe-amaranth). Native Americans domesticated white-seeded grain amaranths (A. caudatus, A. cruentus, and A. hypochondriacus) for use as cereal grains. Some species of Amaranthus and Celosia are potherbs.

Amaranthaceae are usually divided into subfamilies Amaranthoideae (anthers 4-locular with two lines of dehiscence) and Gomphrenoideae Schinz (anthers 2-locular with one line of dehiscence). Amaranthaceae and Chenopodiaceae have long been recognized as allied families that share a number of features: generally small flowers, one perianth whorl, a syncarpous gynoecium with a superior ovary and often only one ovule, basal or free-central placentation, pollen characteristics, centrospermous embryo development, betalain pigments, and P-type form (c) sieve-element plastids.

(Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.)
Key
1. Distal leaves alternate
→ 2
1. Distal leaves opposite
→ 5
2. Flowers unisexual (plants monoecious or dioecious); utricles 1-seeded
→ 3
2. Flowers bisexual; utricles 2+-seeded
→ 4
3. Shrubs
Iresine
3. Herbs, annual, rarely perennial
Amaranthus
4. Leaf blades mostly lanceolate, ovate, or deltate; pseudostaminodes absent
Celosia
4. Leaf blades linear; pseudostaminodes alternating with filaments on staminal tubes
Hermbstaedtia
5. Flowers unisexual (plants dioecious); inflorescences terminal, diffuse, open panicles
Iresine
5. Flowers bisexual; inflorescences terminal and/or axillary glomerules, heads, or spikes
→ 6
6. Inflorescences sessile glomerules or condensed spikes, axillary
→ 7
6. Inflorescences pedunculate heads or spikes, terminal and sometimes axillary near stem tips
→ 10
7. Inflorescences several-flowered, axillary spikes; pseudostaminodes present
Alternanthera
7. Inflorescences 1-20-flowered, axillary glomerules; pseudostaminodes present or absent
→ 8
8. Indumentum of branched or barbed trichomes, densely covering plant (rarely glabrous); pseudostaminoides present
Tidestromia
8. Indumentum of simple trichomes; pseudostaminoides absent
→ 9
9. Tepals connate proximally, tips 1-veined; filament tubes inserted distally on perianth tubes; basal rosette leaves usually absent at anthesis
Guilleminea
9. Tepals distinct, 3-veined; filament tubes ± free from tepals; basal rosette leaves present at anthesis
Gossypianthus
10. Inflorescences simple or compound spikes
→ 11
10. Inflorescences globose or cylindric heads or spikes
→ 12
11. Inflorescences mostly compound, interrupted spikes; tepals connate into indurate tubes with lateral crests or spines, lanate
Froelichia
11. Inflorescences simple spikes or few-branched panicles, flowers progressively farther apart below; tepals basally connate into indurate tubes, without ornamentation, ± glabrous
Achyranthes
12. Inflorescences not immediately subtended by leaves
Alternanthera
12. Inflorescences immediately subtended by 2 or more leaves
→ 13
13. Leaves fleshy, sessile; blade linear to narrowly obovate, glabrous except in axils
Blutaparon
13. Leaves not fleshy, petiolate or sessile; blade ovate to obovate, pilose at least abaxially
Gomphrena
Source FNA vol. 4. FNA vol. 4, p. 405. Authors: Kenneth R. Robertson, Steven E. Clemants.
Parent taxa Amaranthaceae > Amaranthus > subg. Amaranthus
Sibling taxa
A. acanthochiton, A. albus, A. arenicola, A. australis, A. blitoides, A. blitum, A. californicus, A. cannabinus, A. caudatus, A. crassipes, A. crispus, A. deflexus, A. dubius, A. fimbriatus, A. floridanus, A. graecizans, A. greggii, A. hybridus, A. hypochondriacus, A. muricatus, A. obcordatus, A. palmeri, A. polygonoides, A. powellii, A. pumilus, A. retroflexus, A. scleropoides, A. spinosus, A. tamaulipensis, A. thunbergii, A. torreyi, A. tricolor, A. tuberculatus, A. viridis, A. viscidulus, A. watsonii, A. wrightii
Subordinate taxa
Achyranthes, Alternanthera, Amaranthus, Blutaparon, Celosia, Froelichia, Gomphrena, Gossypianthus, Guilleminea, Hermbstaedtia, Iresine, Tidestromia
Synonyms A. hybridus subsp. cruentus
Name authority Linnaeus: Syst. Nat. ed. 10, 2: 1269. (1759) Jussieu
Web links 
Unless otherwise noted, all data comes from the online version of the Flora of North America, who have made most of their content available via a Creative Commons license (CC BY 4.0).



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