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Amaranthus tricolor
Also called Tampala, Chinese Amaranth, Chinese Spinach, Summer Poinsettia, Edible Amaranth
In Singapore: Amaranth, Joseph's Coat, Chinese spinach, Tampala, Joseph's coat, 苋菜, 汗菜
Joseph's-coat is a fast-growing annual amaranth grown for its brightly coloured yellow, red and green leaves and for its edible leaves and stems. It thrives in warm weather and full sun, and is easy to raise from seed.
Amaranthus tricolor, known as edible amaranth, is a species of flowering plant in the genus Amaranthus, part of the family Amaranthaceae.
The plant is often cultivated for ornamental and culinary purposes. It is known as bireum in Korea; tampala, tandaljo, or tandalja bhaji in India; callaloo in the Caribbean; and Joseph's coat in other areas, in reference to the Biblical story of Joseph and the coat of many colors. Although it is native to South and South-East Asia, A. tricolor is one of several species of amaranth cultivated in warm regions across the world. Cultivars have striking yellow, red, and green foliage.
The leaves and stems may be eaten as a salad vegetable. In Africa, it is usually cooked as a leafy vegetable. It is usually stir fried or steamed as a side dish in both China and Japan.
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 · African amaranth
[Contains information from Leaf Area Index (LAI) and Heritage Trees from data.gov.sg (National Parks Board), made available under the terms of the Singapore Open Data Licence version 1.0]
Text excerpted from the Wikipedia article Amaranthus tricolor 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.
