Amaranthus spinosus L.
EOL Text
"
Flower
In axillary or aggregated terminal panicles; greenish-white. Flowering from December-April.
Fruit
An orbicular urticle, compressed. Fruiting throughout the year.
Field tips
Stem reddish. Spines axillary, paired or clustered.
Leaf Arrangement
Alternate-spiral
Leaf Type
Simple
Leaf Shape
Elliptic-obovate to rhomboid
Leaf Apex
Acutely emarginate
Leaf Base
Acute
Leaf Margin
Entire
"
| License | http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/ |
| Rights holder/Author | Keystone Foundation, India Biodiversity Portal |
| Source | http://indiabiodiversity.org/species/show/32937 |
Annual.
| License | http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/3.0/ |
| Rights holder/Author | Bibliotheca Alexandrina, BA Cultnat, Bibliotheca Alexandrina - EOL Ar |
| Source | http://lifedesk.bibalex.org/ba/pages/1811 |
Annual herb, erect or slightly decumbent, simple or much-branched and bushy, up to 1.5 m in height. Stem stout, sometimes reddish, usually branched, angular, glabrous or increasingly furnished above (especially in the inflore¬scence) with long, multicellular, flocculent hairs. Leaves glabrous, or thinly pilose on the lower surface of the primary nervation, long-petiolate (petioles up to c. 9 cm, sometimes longer than the lamina), the lamina ovate to rhomboid-ovate, elliptic, lanceolate-oblong or lanceolate, c. 1.5-12 x 0.8-6 cm, subacute or more commonly blunt or retuse at the tip with a distinct, fine, colourless mucro, cuneate or attenuate at the base; each leaf-axil bearing a pair of fine and slender to stout and compressed spines up to c. 2.5 cm long. Flowers green, in the lower part of the plant in axillary clusters 6-15 mm in diameter; towards the ends of the stem and branches the clusters are leafless and approximated to form simple or sometimes (especially the terminal) branched spikes usually up to c. 15 cm long and 1 cm wide. Lower clusters entirely female, as are the lower flowers of the spikes; upper flowers of the spikes male, mostly for the apical 1/4-2/3 of each spike. Bracts and bracteoles deltoid-ovate, pale-membranous, with an erect, pale or reddish awn formed by the excurrent green midrib; bracteoles shorter than, subequalling or little exceeding the perianth, commonly smaller than the bracts. Perianth segments 5, those of the female flowers c. 1.5-2.5 mm, narrowly oblong or spathulate-oblong, obtuse or acute, mucronulate, frequently with a greenish dorsal vitta; those of the male flowers broadly lanceolate or lanceolate-oblong, acute or acuminate, only the midrib green. Stigmas (2-) 3, flexuose or reflexed, 1-1.5 mm. Capsule ovoid-urceolate with a short inflated neck below the style base, c. 1.5 mm, regularly or irregularly circumscissile or rarely indehiscent, the lid rugulose below the neck. Seed 0.75-1 mm, compressed, black, shining, very faintly reticulate.
| License | http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/3.0/ |
| Rights holder/Author | eFloras.org Copyright © Missouri Botanical Garden |
| Source | http://www.efloras.org/florataxon.aspx?flora_id=5&taxon_id=200006989 |
The following is a representative barcode sequence, the centroid of all available sequences for this species.
150-1200 m
| License | http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/3.0/ |
| Rights holder/Author | eFloras.org Copyright © Missouri Botanical Garden |
| Source | http://www.efloras.org/florataxon.aspx?flora_id=110&taxon_id=200006989 |
Barcode of Life Data Systems (BOLDS) Stats
Public Records: 8
Specimens with Barcodes: 32
Species With Barcodes: 1
Annual herb, mostly erect, up to 1.5 m. Leaves glabrous or with sparse hairs on the main veins below, long petiolate, up to 9 cm. The leaf axils bear pairs of fine and slender spines. Flowers green in axillary clusters and branched terminal spikes. Male flowers in the apical part of the spikes.
Stem erect, green or somewhat tinged purple, 30-100 cm tall, terete or obtusely angulate, much branched, glabrous or slightly pubescent. Petiole 1-8 cm, glabrous, 2-armed at base; leaf blade ovate-rhombic or ovate-lanceolate, 3-12 × 1-6 cm, glabrous or slightly pubescent along veins when young, base cuneate, margin entire, apex obtuse, with a mucro. Complex thyrsoid structures terminal or axillary, 8-25 cm; terminal spike usually with all male flowers at or toward apex. Bracts becoming very sharply spiny in proximal part of spike. Tepals green, transparent at margin and with green or purple median band, apex acute, with a mucro; male flowers oblong, 2-2.5 mm; female flowers oblong-spatulate, ca. 1.5 mm. Filaments nearly as long as or slightly shorter than perianth. Stigmas 3(or 2). Utricles included in perianth, oblong, 1-1.2 mm, circumscissile slightly below middle. Seeds brownish black, subglobose, ca. 1 mm in diam. Fl. and fr. Jul-Nov. 2n = 34, 68.
| License | http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/3.0/ |
| Rights holder/Author | eFloras.org Copyright © Missouri Botanical Garden |
| Source | http://www.efloras.org/florataxon.aspx?flora_id=2&taxon_id=200006989 |
Barcode of Life Data Systems (BOLDS) Stats
Public Records: 0
Specimens with Barcodes: 2
Species With Barcodes: 1
spinosus: spiny