Plantae > Tracheophyta > Magnoliopsida > Caryophyllales > Amaranthaceae > Oxybasis rubra > Oxybasis rubra var. humilis

Oxybasis rubra var. humilis (red goosefoot)

Synonyms:

Attributes

Allergen Potential [1]  High
Screening - Summer [2]  Porous
Screening - Winter [2]  Porous
Bloom Period [2]  Late Summer
Drought Tolerance [2]  Low
Edible [3]  May be edible. See the Plants For A Future link below for details.
Fire Tolerance [2]  None
Flower Type [3]  Hermaphrodite
Frost Free Days [2]  80 days
Fruit/Seed Abundance [2]  High
Fruit/Seed Begin [2]  Summer
Fruit/Seed End [2]  Summer
Growth Form [2]  Single Crown
Growth Period [2]  Spring, Summer
Growth Rate [2]  Rapid
Hazards [3]  The leaves and seeds of all members of this genus are more or less edible. However, many of the species in this genus contain saponins, though usually in quantities too small to do any harm. Although toxic, saponins are poorly absorbed by the body and most pass straight through without any problem. They are also broken down to a large extent in the cooking process. Saponins are found in many foods, such as some beans. Saponins are much more toxic to some creatures, such as fish, and hunting tribes have traditionally put large quantities of them in streams, lakes etc in order to stupefy or kill the fish; The plants also contain some oxalic acid, which in large quantities can lock up some of the nutrients in the food. However, even considering this, they are very nutritious vegetables in reasonable quantities. Cooking the plants will reduce their content of oxalic acid. People with a tendency to rheumatism, arthritis, gout, kidney stones or hyperacidity should take especial caution if including this plant in their diet since it can aggravate their condition;
Leaf Type [2]  Deciduous
Lifespan [3]  Annual
Pollinators [3]  Wind
Propagation [2]  Seed
Regrowth Rate [2]  Moderate
Root Depth [2]  8 inches (20 cm)
Seed Spread Rate [2]  Moderate
Seed Vigor [2]  Medium
Seeds Per [2]  7566651 / lb (16681623 / kg)
Shape/Orientation [2]  Erect
Structure [5]  Herb
Usage [3]  Gold/green dyes can be obtained from the whole plant;
Vegetative Spread Rate [2]  None
Flower Color [2]  Red
Foliage Color [2]  Green
Fruit Color [2]  Black
Flower Conspicuous [2]  Yes
Fruit Conspicuous [2]  Yes
Height [3]  24 inches (0.6 m)
Hardiness Zone Minimum [2]  USDA Zone: 12 Low Temperature: 50 F° (10 C°) → 55 F° (12.8 C°)
Light Preference [4]  Mostly Sunny
Soil Acidity [4]  Neutral
Soil Fertility [4]  Rich
Soil Moisture [4]  Damp
Water Use [2]  High
View Plants For A Future Record : Oxybasis rubra var. humilis

Protected Areas

Predators

Agrotis ripae (Sand Dart)[6]
Cassida vittata[6]
Heterotrioza chenopodii[6]
Pelurga comitata (Dark Spinach)[7]

Consumers

Parasitized by 
Peronospora farinosa[8]

External References

USDA Plant Profile

NatureServe Explorer

Citations

Attributes / relations provided by
♦ 1Derived from Allergy-Free Gardening OPALS™, Thomas Leo Ogren (2000)
♦ 2USDA Plants Database, U. S. Department of Agriculture
♦ 3Plants For A Future licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License
♦ 4ECOFACT 2a Technical Annex - Ellenberg’s indicator values for British Plants, M O Hill, J O Mountford, D B Roy & R G H Bunce (1999)
♦ 5Kattge, J. et al. (2011b) TRY - a global database of plant traits Global Change Biology 17:2905-2935
♦ 6Biological Records Centre Database of Insects and their Food Plants
♦ 7HOSTS - a Database of the World's Lepidopteran Hostplants Gaden S. Robinson, Phillip R. Ackery, Ian J. Kitching, George W. Beccaloni AND Luis M. Hernández
♦ 8Jorrit H. Poelen, James D. Simons and Chris J. Mungall. (2014). Global Biotic Interactions: An open infrastructure to share and analyze species-interaction datasets. Ecological Informatics.
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