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Chaff flower

Achyranthes

Also called Chaff Flowers

Chaff flower
Photo: Unknown author, CC BY-SA 3.0

Achyranthes is a genus of medicinal and ornamental herbs and shrubs in the amaranth family, known as chaff flowers. It is grown mainly for its colourful foliage and small spiky flowers, and is most often sold as a warm-climate garden or pot plant.

Family
Amaranthaceae (Amaranth & beet family)
Light
Part shade, Bright indirect
Water
Water when the top of the soil feels dry, and keep the mix evenly moist during warm growth.
Soil
Well-drained, fertile potting mix or garden soil.
Temperature
18-30 °C; protect below 10 °C
How easy
Easy

About

Achyranthes is a genus of medicinal and ornamental plants in the amaranth family, Amaranthaceae. Chaff flower is a common name for plants in this genus. The Hawaiian species (A. divaricata, A. humile, and A. sandwicensis) are known in Hawaiian as kuluʻī.

A 2024 morphological and phylogenetic analysis by Vanessa Di Vincenzo et al. merged the genus Achyropsis and the Hawaiian genus Nototrichium into Achyranthes to make it monophyletic. The genus is characterized by solitary, fertile flowers.

Other Achyranthes plants

Devil's horsewhip · Japanese chaff flower

Text excerpted from the Wikipedia article Achyranthes by its contributors, under CC BY-SA 4.0; the excerpts and the care summary drawn from them are shared under the same licence.

The care summary was written by AI (Claude, Anthropic) from the sources on this page, with general growing knowledge where they are silent. Check before relying on it.

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