Amaranthus viridis L.
EOL Text
Pantropical.
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| Source | http://www.efloras.org/florataxon.aspx?flora_id=110&taxon_id=200006991 |
Zizeeria knysna (Sooty blue)
Flowering and fruiting: July-December
"
Field Tips
Stem ribbed, purple.
Flower
In axillary and terminal panicles. Flowering peaks in December-April.
Fruit
An utricle, indehiscent, sub compressed, rugose, brownish.
Leaf arrangement
Alternate Spiral
Leaf Bases
Truncate
Leaf Margins
Entire
Leaf Shapes
Deltoid
Leaf Types
Simple
Habit
A slender herb.
"
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| Rights holder/Author | Keystone Foundation, India Biodiversity Portal |
| Source | http://indiabiodiversity.org/species/show/32945 |
Flowering summer-fall.
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| Rights holder/Author | eFloras.org Copyright © Missouri Botanical Garden |
| Source | http://www.efloras.org/florataxon.aspx?flora_id=1&taxon_id=200006991 |
Annual herb, erect or more rarely ascending, 10-75 (-100) cm. Stem rather slender, sparingly to considerably branched, angular, glabrous or more frequently increasingly hairy upwards (especially in the inflorescence) with short or longer and rather floccose multicellular hairs. Leaves glabrous or shortly to fairly long-pilose on the lower surface of the primary and most of the venation, long-petiolate (petioles up to c. 10 cm long and the longest commonly longer than the lamina), lamina deltoid-ovate to rhomboid-oblong, 2-7 x 1.5-5.5 cm, the margins occasionally obviously sinuate, shortly cuneate to sub-truncate below, obtuse and narrowly to clearly emarginate at the tip, minutely mucronate. Flowers green, in slender, axillary or terminal, often paniculate spikes c. 2.5-12 cm long and 2-5 mm wide, or in the lower part of the stem in dense axillary clusters to c. 7 mm in diameter; male and female flowers intermixed but the latter more numerous. Bracts and bracteoles deltoid-ovate to lanceolate-ovate, whitish-membranous with a very short, pale or reddish awn formed by the excurrent green midrib, bracteoles shorter than the perianth (c. 1 mm.). Perianth segments 3, very rarely 4, those of the male flowers oblong-oval, acute, concave, c. 1.5 mm, shortly mucronate; those of the female flowers narrowly oblong to narrowly spathulate, finally 1.25-1.75 mm, minutely mucronate or not, the borders white-membranous, midrib green and often thickened above. Stigmas 2-3, short, erect or almost so. Capsule subglobose, 1.25-1.5 mm, not or slightly exceeding the perianth, indehiscent or rupturing irregularly, very strongly rugose throughout. Seed c. 1-1.25 mm, round, only slightly compressed, dark brown to black with an often paler thick border, ± shining, reticulate and with shallow scurfy verrucae on the reticulum, the verrucae with the shape of the areolae.
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| Rights holder/Author | eFloras.org Copyright © Missouri Botanical Garden |
| Source | http://www.efloras.org/florataxon.aspx?flora_id=5&taxon_id=200006991 |
Annual.
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| Rights holder/Author | Bibliotheca Alexandrina, BA Cultnat, Bibliotheca Alexandrina - EOL Ar |
| Source | http://lifedesk.bibalex.org/ba/pages/1813 |
Amaranthus viridis is a cosmopolitan species in the botanical family Amaranthaceae and is commonly known as Slender Amaranth or Green Amaranth.
Gastronomy[edit]
Amaranthus viridis is eaten in Northeastern Indian state Manipur where it is known as Cheng-kruk and eaten traditionally as a vegetable in South India, especially in Kerala, where it is known as "Kuppacheera" കുപ്പച്ചീര. It is a common vegetable in Bengali cuisine and is called "note shak" ("shak" means leafy vegetable).
In Greece it is called vlita (βλήτα) and is one of the varieties of "horta" or greens known in Greek cuisine which are boiled and served with olive oil and lemon.
It is also eaten as a vegetable in parts of Africa.[1] In Jamaica it is eaten as a vegetable and is known locally as callaloo (not to be confused with callaloo of most other countries). The leaves of this plant, known as massaagu in Dhivehi, have been used in the diet of the Maldives for centuries in dishes such as mas huni.[2]
In the 19th Century A. viridus, or green amaranth was an item of food in Australia. The botanist Joseph Maiden wrote in 1889: "It is an excellent substitute for spinach, being far superior to much of the leaves of the white beet sold for spinach in Sydney. Next to spinach it seems to be most like boiled nettle leaves, which when young are used in England, and are excellent. This amarantus should be cooked like spinach, and as it becomes more widely known, it is sure to be popular, except amongst persons who may consider it beneath their dignity to have anything to do with so common a weed."[3]
Green amaranth also has clusters of nutty edible seeds, which can be eaten as snacks or used in biscuits. A porridge can be made by boiling the seeds in water. Unlike other amaranths, the seeds can be easily harvested by scraping the ripe spikes of seeds between the fingers.[3]
Amaranthus viridis is used as a medicinal herb in traditional Ayurvedic medicine, under the Sanskrit name Tanduliya.[4]
References[edit]
- ^ Grubben, G.J.H. & Denton, O.A. (2004) Plant Resources of Tropical Africa 2. Vegetables. PROTA Foundation, Wageningen; Backhuys, Leiden; CTA, Wageningen.
- ^ Xavier Romero-Frias, The Maldive Islanders, A Study of the Popular Culture of an Ancient Ocean Kingdom. Barcelona 1999, ISBN 84-7254-801-5
- ^ a b Low, Tim (1985). Wild Herbs of Australia & New Zealand. Angus & Robertson Publishers. p. 44. ISBN 0207151679.
- ^ R.V. Nair, Controversial drug plants
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| Rights holder/Author | Wikipedia |
| Source | http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Amaranthus_viridis&oldid=654162002 |
150-1200 m
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| Rights holder/Author | eFloras.org Copyright © Missouri Botanical Garden |
| Source | http://www.efloras.org/florataxon.aspx?flora_id=110&taxon_id=200006991 |
The following is a representative barcode sequence, the centroid of all available sequences for this species.