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Amaranthus muricatus
Also called Rough Fruited Amaranth, Muricate Amaranth, Rough Fruit Amaranth
Amaranthus muricatus is a decumbent perennial amaranth from South America that tolerates arid conditions. It is best grown as a drought-tolerant plant in warm, sunny spots, and it can spread aggressively and is invasive in many regions.
Amaranthus muricatus, the so-called African amaranth, is a species in the genus Amaranthus native to South America; Bolivia, Paraguay, Argentina and Uruguay. It is an invasive species in Africa, Europe and Australia, and to a lesser degree in North America and Asia. It is a decumbent perennial that does well in arid climates.
A. muricatus may grow to about 60 cm tall. Its glabrous leaves are linear to lanceolate, about 2-5 cm long, with long petioles. Small flowers are produced on compact, pyramidal panicles. These flowers, which appear in summer and fall, produce wrinkled achenes, about 2 mm long, containing semiglossy, black, lenticular seeds that are typically 1-1.2 mm in diameter.
Greenstripe · Prostrate pigweed · Mat amaranth · Purple amaranth · Brown's amaranth · Love-lies-bleeding · Red amaranth · Spleen amaranth · Mediterranean amaranth · Slim amaranth · Prince-of-Wales feather · Carelessweed
Text excerpted from the Wikipedia article Amaranthus muricatus 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.
