Globe Amaranth

Annual herb, decumbent or erect, branched from the base and also above, c. 15-60 cm, stem and branches striate or sulcate, ± densely clothed with appressed white hairs at least when young. Leaves broadly lanceolate to oblong or elliptic-oblong, 2.5-12 (-15) x 2-4 (-6) cm, narrowed to an ill-defined petiole below, thinly pilose on both surfaces, the pair of leaves subtending the terminal inflorescence sessile or almost so, broadly to subcordate-ovate. Inflorescences sessile above the uppermost pair of leaves, usually solitary, globose or depressed-globose, c. 2 cm in diameter, pinkish to deep red; bracts deltoid-ovate, 3-5 mm, mucronate with the shortly excurrent midrib; bracteoles strongly laterally compressed, navicular, c. 8-12 mm, mucronate with the excurrent midrib, furnished from the apex almost to the base of the dorsal surface of the midrib with a broad, irregularly dentate crest. Tepals similar to those of G. celosioides but longer (6-6.5 mm), the outer more lanate and the inner less markedly indurate at the base. Staminal tube subequalling the perianth, the 5 teeth deeply bilobed with obtuse lobes subequalling the anthers. Style and stigmas together c. 2.5 mm, stigmas divergent, subequalling or slightly longer than the style. Capsule oblong-ovoid, compressed, c. 2.5 mm. Seeds compressed-ovoid, c. 2 mm, brown, almost smooth, shining.

Plants annual, not cespitose, 3-10 dm; roots fibrous. Stems erect, pilose-strigose. Leaves: petiole 0.5-2 cm; blade green, oblong to ovate, 2-10 × 0.5-5 cm, apex acute, villous. Inflorescences: heads white, yellow, red, or purple, globose, 20-28 mm diam.; bractlets crested along keel. Flowers: tube densely lanate; perianth lobes white to pink, lance-subulate, 4.4-5.2 mm, chartaceous, apex acuminate. Utricles oblong, 2 mm, apex acute. Seeds 1.5 mm.

Herbs annual, erect, 20-60 cm tall. Stem stout, branched; branches slightly quadrangular, gray strigose, slightly inflated at nodes. Petiole 1-1.5 cm, long gray hairy; leaf blade oblong or oblong-obovate, 3.5-13 × 1.5-5 cm, papery, long white hairy and ciliate, narrowing toward base, margin undulate, apex acute or obtuse. Heads terminal, 1-3, usually purple, sometimes light purple or white, 2-2.5 cm in diam. Bracts 2, opposite, green, ovate or cordate, 1-1.5 cm, gray hairy; bracts white, purple at apex, ovate, 3-5 mm; bracteoles purple, triangular-lanceolate, much longer than bracts, 1-1.2 cm. Tepals not rigid after anthesis, lanceolate, 5-6 mm, outside densely white lanose, apex acuminate. Filaments connate into a tube, 5-parted at apex. Styles linear, shorter than tube of stamens; stigmas 2, furcate. Utricles subglobose, 2-2.5 mm in diam. Seeds brown, shiny, reniform. Fl. and fr. Jun-Sep.

Native of New World Tropics, frequently semi-naturalised.

Distribution: A native of tropical America, long cultivated in the warmer regions of the world and its exact native area obscured; often found as a garden stray or outcast but rarely if ever truly naturalised, at least in the Old World. A common ornamental in Pakistan.

introduced; La., N.J., N.Y., Pa., S.C., Tex., Va.; native of s Asia; widely escaped from cultivation.

900-1500 m

Flowering summer-fall.

Waste grounds; 10-500m.

Widely cultivated. Fujian, Guangxi, Guizhou, Hebei, Hubei, Shanxi, Sichuan, Xinjiang, Zhejiang [native to neotropics; cultivated and naturalized throughout tropical Asia].