Seaside amaranth is a low, prostrate annual of sandy coastal beaches and barrier islands on the eastern United States, now rare and threatened. It is rarely grown as a garden plant, and its key to survival is sandy, open, sunny coastal habitat.
Family
Amaranthaceae (Amaranth & beet family)
Grows as
Annual
Light
Full sun
Water
Tolerates dry sand; water sparingly and let the soil dry out between waterings.
Soil
Well-drained sand
Temperature
Warm temperate conditions, roughly 15–30 °C; not frost tolerant
How easy
Hard
Native range
Coastral E. U.S.A.
Climate
temperate
About
Amaranthus pumilus, the seaside amaranth or seabeach amaranth, is a species of amaranth. This annual plant is now a threatened species, although it was formerly scattered along the eastern coast of the United States, its native range.
Where it grows
This plant is found on sandy beaches, especially on barrier islands. It flourishes at the base of dunes above the high water mark. Although the seaside amaranth is found in the neighborhood of other beach plants, it is intolerant of all but American sea rocket (Cakile edentula). The plant is important in the sandy beach ecosystem, accumulating sand around itself to form dunes.
Text excerpted from the Wikipedia article Amaranthus pumilus 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.