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Amaranthus blitoides
Also called Prostate pigweed, Prostrate Pigweed, Matweed, Matweed Amaranth, Prostrate Amaranth, Mat Pigweed, Procumbent Pigweed
Mat amaranth is a low, spreading annual weed in the amaranth family that naturally hugs the ground, usually reaching about 60 cm. It is more often found as a weed than grown deliberately, and it spreads readily by seed.
Amaranthus blitoides, commonly called mat amaranth, prostrate pigweed, procumbent pigweed, prostrate amaranth, or matweed, is a glabrous annual plants species. It usually grows up to 0.6 m (2 ft 0 in), though it may grow up to 1 m (3 ft 3 in). It flowers in the summer to fall.
It is believed to have been a native of the central and possibly eastern United States, but it has naturalized in almost all of temperate North America. It has also naturalized in South America and Eurasia. Some authorities list it as an invasive species.
The seeds of Amaranthus blitoides were used as a food source by a number of Native American groups. Among the Zuni people, the seeds were originally eaten raw, but later ground with black corn meal, made into balls and eaten.
Greenstripe · Prostrate pigweed · Purple amaranth · Brown's amaranth · Love-lies-bleeding · Red amaranth · Spleen amaranth · Mediterranean amaranth · Slim amaranth · Prince-of-Wales feather · African amaranth · Carelessweed
Text excerpted from the Wikipedia article Amaranthus blitoides 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.
Life form, climate and native range: World Checklist of Vascular Plants, Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew (CC BY 3.0), reformatted; see Plants of the World Online.
