Globe Amaranth

Gomphrena globosa L. Sp. PL 224. 1753
Gomphrena globosa carnea Moq. in DC. Prodr. 13 2 : 409. 1849. Xeraea globosa Kuntze, Rev. Gen. 545. 1891. Amarantoides globosus Maza, Fl. Haban. 94. 1897. Amarantoides globosus albifiorus Maza, Fl. Haban. 95. 1897. Gomphrena globosa aureiflora Stuchlik, Repert. Sp. Nov. 12: 340. 1913.
Annual, 3-10 dm. high, much branched throughout, or sometimes simple; branches stout, swollen and often purplish at the nodes, pilose-strigose, or sometimes pilose; leaves shortpetiolate, the blades oblong, oval, ovate-lanceolate, broadly ovate, or spatulate, 2-10 cm. long, 0.5-5 .cm. wide, acute at the apex, mucronate, rounded to acuminate at the base, bright-green, appressed-pilose on both surfaces, often densely so ; each head subtended by 2 or rarely 3 leaves, these cordate-ovate or broadly ovate, sessile, acute, shorter than or sometimes exceeding the heads; heads globose or short-cylindric, long-pedunculate, mostly 2-2.5 cm. in diameter, the rachis villous; bracts triangular-ovate, long-acuminate; bractlets 8-12 mm. long, 2-3 times as long as the bracts, oblong, acute, and white, yellow, red, or purple, broadly cristate along the keel, the crest serrulate; perianth densely lanate, shorter than the bractlets, the lobes lancesubulate, 1-nerved, scarious, white or purplish, green along the nerve; stamen-tube longer or shorter than the perianth, the free part of the filaments oblong; style elongate, slender; stigmas linear, erect; utricle oblong; seed ovoid or sublenticular, shining, yellowish.
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Type locality: India.
Distribution: Southern Asia; escaped from cultivation in Mexico, Central America, the West Indies, and rarely in the United States ; also in South America.