Amaranthus dinteri
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Image 1
Habit
01 Jul 2015
Image 2
Leaves and flowers
01 Jul 2015
| Family: | Amaranthaceae |
| Full name: | Amaranthus dinteri Schinz |
| ID status: | Fairly certain |
| Afrikaans common name(s): | - |
| English common name(s): | Pigweed |
| Synonym(s): | Amaranthus dinteri Schinz subsp. dinteri |
| Status: | Native |
| Description: | Annual herb; main stems decumbent, sometimes erect, 10-40 cm, branched especially at their base, subglabrous or with short straight or papiliform hairs when young. Leaves with 5-20 mm petiole, glabrous or barely pubescent, obovate or obovate-elliptic blade, wavy, 5-25(-30) X 3-14 mm, attenuate at the base, obtuse at the apex, rounded or retusa, often with a mucron of 0.1-0.5 mm. Axillary inflorescences, in greenish glomeruli, 5-8 mm in diameter, which approach and converge towards the apex of the stems; bracts and bracteoles lanceolate, 1-2.5 mm, shorter than the sepals, membranous, with the midvein green and excurrent, curved and reflected at the apex. Flowers of both sexes on the same inflorescence. Staminate flowers with 3 sepals lanceolate to elliptic, 1-2.2 mm, shortly acuminate, 3 stamens. Pistillate flowers with 3 ovate to oblong sepals, 1.5-3.5 mm, unequal, with a whitish area and a green midvein, unbranched, sometimes conspicuously reflexed, usually acute at the apex with an apicle 0.1-0.5(- 0.75)mm; stigmas 3, straight or slightly reflexed, 0.5-0.75 mm. Dehiscent fruits, with a rough operculum, smooth urn, shorter or almost equal to the sepals; seeds blackish or brown, 1.1-1.4 mm diam, shiny in the central area, semi-shiny and finely reticulated in the marginal area. (from REVISIÓN TAXONÓMICA DE LAS ESPECIES MONOICAS DE AMARANTHUS, ND Bayon, Annals of the Missouri Botanical Garden, Vol. 101, No. 2 (December 2015), pp. 261-383) Stems glabrous (sometimes puberulous above especially about the nodes), without elongate crisped hairs, frequently papillose-scabrid; female perianth-segments with a short, 0.1–0.5 (0.75) erect or divergent mucro. (from Kew eFloras website / Flora Zambesiaca) Annual herb, decumbent or ascending with numerous stems from the base (the stems rather sparingly branched below), or erect and branched, chiefly in the lower half, glabrous or sometimes puberulous when young, mainly about the nodes; stem and branches more or less sulcate and angled, almost smooth to considerably papillose-scabrid. Main leaves of stem and branches glabrous, c. 10–45 x 3–13 (18) mm including the slender petiole, which varies from slightly shorter to considerably longer than the broadly obovate or less commonly elliptic lamina, rounded-obtuse to slightly emarginate, shortly and feebly mucronate, with or without a purplish black blotch. Flowers green, in dense axillary clusters 4–8 mm in diam., extending almost to the base of the plant, clusters becoming more approximate above but the superior leaves only gradually and never considerably reduced; male and female flowers intermixed, the males more numerous above. Bracts lanceolate, 1–1.5 mm long, pale membranous, the arista somewhat shorter than the lamina; bracteoles c. 1.25–3 mm long, lanceolate-ovate to lanceolate, green along the midrib above, usually more shortly aristate than the bracts, outwardly-curving, shorter than the perianth. Male flowers with 3 elliptic, shortly aristate tepals, c. 1.5–2 mm long, pale-membranous with a greenish or brownish midrib. Female flowers with 3 tepals, tepals ovate to oblong, (1.5) 2–3 mm long, frequently broadly greenish above with branched or anastomosing nervation towards the usually more or less outwardly curved apices, acute to somewhat obtuse, shortly but distinctly aristate. Stigmas 3, c. 0.5–0.75 mm long, somewhat expanded below. Fruit ovoid to shortly obpyriform, shorter than or sometimes subequalling the perianth, circumcissile, strongly rugose, dark when ripe. Seeds compressed, lenticular, 1–1.5 mm across, finely reticulate over the entire surface, less shining than in many species of the genus. (from JSTOR Global Plants website / Flora Zambesiaca) Partial inflorescences all axillary. The perianth of the female flowers is longer than the preceding leaves, without awn, at most with 0.2-0.8 now long prickly tips. Female flowers with 3 ovate-lanceolate, sharply pointed hull leaves with a 0.3-0.8 mm long spike tip. Pre-leaves only a little shorter than the floral envelope. Leaves inverted egg-shaped-spatulate to almost rounded, suddenly narrowed into the petiole. (from Prodromus einer Flora of SWA) |
| Link(s) |
African Plant Database
JSTOR Plant Science Kew Herbarium Catalogue BGBM Berlin-Dahlem - Virtual Herbarium Züricher Herbarien iNaturalist (Namibia / Alex Dreyer) iNaturalist (Namibia) iNaturalist (southern Africa) Flora of Zimbabwe Fleurs de notre Terre - Galerie Namibie Tree Atlas of Namibia |
| Content last updated: | 18 Apr 2024 |
