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green amaranth, slender amaranth, tropical green amaranth

Habit Plants annual, sometimes short-lived perennial in tropics and subtropics, glabrous.
Stems

erect, simple or with lateral branches (especially distally), 0.2–1 m.

Leaves

petiole 1/2–11/2 as long as blade;

blade rhombic-ovate or ovate, 1–7 × 0.5–5 cm, base rounded, cuneate, or attenuate, margins entire, plane, apex obtuse, rounded, or emarginate, mucronate.

Bracts

of pistillate flowers ovate to lanceolate, 1 mm, shorter than tepals.

Inflorescences

slender spikes aggregated into elongate terminal panicles, also from distal axils, green, leafless at least distally.

Staminate flowers

inconspicuous, mostly at tips of inflorescences;

tepals 3;

stamens 3.

Pistillate flowers

tepals 3, narrowly elliptic, obovate-elliptic or spatulate, not clawed, ± equal, 1.2–1.7 mm, apex rounded or nearly acute, mucronate or not;

style branches erect;

stigmas 3.

Seeds

black or dark brown, subglobose to thick-lenticular, 1 mm diam., minutely punctulate, rather dull.

Utricles

ovoid to compressed-ovoid, 1–1.6 mm, equaling or slightly exceeding tepals, prominently or faintly rugose, indehiscent.

Amaranthus viridis

Phenology Flowering summer–fall.
Habitat Fields, railroads, lawns, gardens, waste areas, other disturbed habitats
Elevation 0-1000 m (0-3300 ft)
Distribution
from FNA
AL; AR; AZ; FL; GA; LA; MA; MI; MS; NC; NM; NY; OK; PA; SC; TN; TX; VA; native to South America [Introduced in North America; introduced in tropical and subtropical regions worldwide]
[WildflowerSearch map]
[BONAP county map]
Source FNA vol. 4, p. 429.
Parent taxa Amaranthaceae > Amaranthus > subg. Albersia
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. cruentus, 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. viscidulus, A. watsonii, A. wrightii
Synonyms A. gracilis
Name authority Linnaeus: Sp. Pl. ed. 2, 2: 1405. (1763)
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