Plantae > Tracheophyta > Magnoliopsida > Caryophyllales > Amaranthaceae > Amaranthus > Amaranthus albus

Amaranthus albus (pigweed amaranth; pigweed; prostrate pigweed; tumble pigweed; tumbleweed; white pigweed)

Synonyms:

Wikipedia Abstract

Amaranthus albus is an annual species of flowering plant. It is native to the tropical Americas but a widespread introduced species in other places, including Europe, Africa, and Australia. Common names include common tumbleweed, tumble pigweed, tumbleweed, prostrate pigweed, pigweed amaranth, white amaranth, and white pigweed.
View Wikipedia Record: Amaranthus albus

Infraspecies

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.
Lifespan [2]  Annual
Pollinators [2]  Wind, Bats
Structure [4]  Herb
Usage [2]  Yellow and green dyes can be obtained from the whole plant;
Height [2]  39 inches (1 m)
Light Preference [3]  Mostly Sunny
Soil Acidity [3]  Neutral
Soil Fertility [3]  Rich
Soil Moisture [3]  Moist
View Plants For A Future Record : Amaranthus albus

Protected Areas

Predators

Callipepla squamata (Scaled Quail)[5]
Pholisora catullus (Common sootywing skipper)[6]

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
3ECOFACT 2a Technical Annex - Ellenberg’s indicator values for British Plants, M O Hill, J O Mountford, D B Roy & R G H Bunce (1999)
4Kattge, J. et al. (2011b) TRY - a global database of plant traits Global Change Biology 17:2905-2935
5FOODS OF SCALED QUAIL (CALLIPEPLA SQUAMATA) IN SOUTHEASTERN NEW MEXICO, TROY L. BEST, The Texas Journal of Science, Vol. XXXVII, Nos. 2&3, September 1985, p. 155-162
6HOSTS - a Database of the World's Lepidopteran Hostplants Gaden S. Robinson, Phillip R. Ackery, Ian J. Kitching, George W. Beccaloni AND Luis M. Hernández
Abstract provided by DBpedia licensed under a Creative Commons License
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