Plantae > Tracheophyta > Magnoliopsida > Caryophyllales > Amaranthaceae > Amaranthus blitum > Amaranthus blitum blitum

Amaranthus blitum blitum (purple amaranth)

Synonyms: Albersia viridis; Amaranthus blitum var. blitum; Amaranthus viridis

Attributes

Allergen Potential [1]  Medium-High
Edible [2]  May be edible. See the Plants For A Future link below for details.
Flower Type [2]  Monoecious
Hazards [2]  No members of this genus are known to be poisonous, but when grown on nitrogen-rich soils they are known to concentrate nitrates in the leaves. This is especially noticeable on land where chemical fertilizers are used. Nitrates are implicated in stomach cancers, blue babies and some other health problems. It is inadvisable, therefore, to eat this plant if it is grown inorganically.
Leaf Type [3]  Evergreen
Lifespan [2]  Annual
Pollinators [2]  Wind, Bats
Structure [3]  Herb
Usage [2]  Yellow and green dyes can be obtained from the whole plant;
Height [2]  39 inches (1 m)
Light Preference [4]  Mostly Sunny
Soil Fertility [4]  Rich
Soil Moisture [4]  Mostly Dry
View Plants For A Future Record : Amaranthus blitum blitum

Protected Areas

Predators

Megalopyge albicollis[5]

External References

USDA Plant Profile

Citations

Attributes / relations provided by
♦ 1Derived from Allergy-Free Gardening OPALS™, Thomas Leo Ogren (2000)
♦ 2Plants For A Future licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License
♦ 3Kattge, J. et al. (2011b) TRY - a global database of plant traits Global Change Biology 17:2905-2935
♦ 4Ellenberg, H., Weber, H.E., Dull, R., Wirth, V., Werner, W., Paulissen, D. (1991) Zeigerwerte von Pflanzen in Mitteleuropa. Scripta Geobotanica 18, 1–248
♦ 5HOSTS - a Database of the World's Lepidopteran Hostplants Gaden S. Robinson, Phillip R. Ackery, Ian J. Kitching, George W. Beccaloni AND Luis M. Hernández
Species taxanomy provided by GBIF Secretariat (2022). GBIF Backbone Taxonomy. Checklist dataset https://doi.org/10.15468/39omei accessed via GBIF.org on 2023-06-13; License: CC BY 4.0