Love Lies Bleeding

While reported as naturalized in some states, most specimens identified as Amaranthus caudatus are referable to A. hybridus or other native species. Amaranthus caudatus is one of the most popular domesticated amaranths and is cultivated primarily as an ornamental, and, to a lesser degree, as a pseudocereal. Plants of A. caudatus may occur locally, usually close to places of cultivation and mostly in the southern regions of the flora. No reliable records of their successful naturalization are available. It is impossible at present to trace records of such ephemeral populations and individual escapes; maps and detailed distribution statements for cultivated species of amaranths are not presented here.

The origin of Amaranthus caudatus remains uncertain. It is generally believed that it originated in South America or Central America from some unspecified wild race of the A. hybridus aggregate, probably South American A. quitensis Kunth. At least some cultivated forms and strains of A. caudatus probably developed with some degree of hybridization with other cultivated species. Numerous infraspecific entities that are mostly of horticultural importance have been described within A. caudatus. Forms with erect and robust club-shaped inflorescences have been recognized as A. mantegazzianus.

Annual herb, erect, up to c. 1.5 m in height, commonly reddish or purplish throughout. Stem rather stout, not or sparingly branched, glabrous or thinly furnished with rather long, multicellular hairs which are increasingly numerous upwards. Leaves glabrous, or ± sparingly pilose along the margins and lower surface of the primary venation, long-petiolate (petiole to c. 8 cm but not longer than the lamina), lamina broadly ovate to rhomboid-ovate or ovate-elliptic, 2.5-15 x 1-8 cm, obtuse to subacute at the mucronulate tip, shortly cuneate to attenuate below. Flowers in axillary and terminal spikes formed of increasingly approximated cymose clusters, the terminal inflorescence varying from a single, elongate, tail-like, pendulous spike, to 30 cm or more long and c. 1.5 cm wide, to a panicle with the ultimate spike so formed; male and female flowers intermixed throughout the spikes. Bracts and bracteoles deltoid-ovate, pale-membranous, acuminate and with a long, pale or reddish, rigid, erect arista formed by the yellow-green or reddish stout, excurrent midrib, the longest up to twice as long as the perianth. Perianth segments 5; those of the male flowers oblong-elliptic, 2.5-3.5 mm, acute, aristate; those of the female flowers 1.75-2.5 mm, broadly obovate to spathulate, distinctly imbricate, abruptly narrowed to a blunt or sometimes faintly emarginate, mucronate tip. Stigmas 3, c. 0.75 mm, erect or flexuose. Capsule 2-2.5 mm, ovoid-globose, circumscissile, slightly urceolate, the lid smooth or furrowed below, abruptly narrowed to a short, thick neck. Seeds shining, compressed, black, almost smooth, or commonly subspherical with a thick yellowish margin and a translucent centre, c. 0.75-1.25 mm.

Plants moderately pubescent distally, becoming glabrescent at maturity. Stems erect, usually green, moderately branched, rarely nearly simple, 0.5-1.5(-2.5) m. Leaves: petiole shorter than to equaling blade; blade rhombic-ovate, ovate, or elliptic to broadly lanceolate, 5-15(-20) × 2-10 cm, base cuneate, margins entire, apex acute to subobtuse, with mucro. Inflorescences terminal, drooping or nodding, usually red, purple, or white, less commonly green, silvery green, or yellow, usually much-branched at base, leafless at least distally, very large and robust. Bracts narrowly lanceolate to linear, equaling or subequal to tepals, not exceeding style branches, apex acuminate with excurrent midrib. Pistillate flowers: tepals 5, spatulate-obovate or lanceolate-obovate, not clawed, subequal, (1-)1.5-2(-2.5) mm, membranaceous, apex obtuse, slightly emarginate, or subacute with mucro; style branches spreading or reflexed; stigmas 3. Staminate flowers mostly at tips of inflorescences; tepals (4-)5; stamens 5. Utricles broadly ovoid to subglobose, 1.5-2(-2.5) mm, ± equaling tepals, dehiscence regularly circumscissile. Seeds dark brown to brownish black or reddish brown, yellowish white, or ivory, lenticular to subglobose, 1-1.2(-1.5) mm diam., smooth or indistinctly punctate.

Stem erect, green, ca. 1.5 m tall, strong, angular, slightly branched or not, glabrous when mature. Petiole green, 1-15 cm, pilose; leaf blade green or red, rhombic-ovate or rhombic-lanceolate, 4-15 × 2-8 cm, both surfaces glabrous, base cuneate, margin entire or undulate, apex acuminate or obtuse. Complex thyrsoid structures terminal, pendulous, much branched, composed of many spikes. Bracts red, lanceolate, ca. 3 mm, transparent, with a midvein abaxially, apex apiculate. Tepals red, shorter than fruit, 2-2.5 mm, transparent, overlapping at margins, with a midvein; male segments oblong; female segments oblong-lanceolate. Stamens 5; stigmas 3, shorter than 1 mm. Utricles red above, subglobose, ca. 3 mm in diam., longer than perianth, circumscissile. Seeds light yellowish brown, subglobose. Fl. Jul-Aug, fr. Sep-Oct. 2n = 32*, 64.

Widely cultivated, country of origin uncertain.

Distribution: Quite unknown in the wild state; it has been postulated by Sauer [Ann. Mo. bot. Gdn. 54: 127 (1967)] that it is a cultigen derived from the American Amaranthus quitensis Kunth. Widely cultivated in most parts of the world as a garden ornamental, and in some regions (e.g. Nepal) as a grain crop. Common in summer gardens in Pakistan.

1000-2300 m

Flowering summer-fall. Rarely occurs as escapes, persisting near the places of cultivation; introduced; Calif., Conn., Del., Ill., Kans., Maine, Mass., Mich., Mo., N.Y., Oreg., Pa., Tenn., Vt., Wis.; Central America; South America; cultivated elsewhere except cold-temperate, subarctic, and arctic zones.

Widely cultivated. in China [native to neotropics; cultivated worldwide].