AMARANTHUS CAUDATUS

Family:- AMARANTHACEAE

Common Name:- Love-lies-bleeding

Synonyms:- None

Meaning:- Amaranthus (Gr) Unfading, reference to the everlasting flowers.

Caudatus (L) Produced into a tail, tailed.

General description:- Erect to arching annual.

Stems:-

a) 30-150 cm.

b) stout not or sparingly branched.

c) sparsely pubescent to almost hairless (glabrous).

Leaves:-

a) 2.5-15 x 1-8 cm.

b) long-stalked (petiolate).

c) rhombic-ovate to elliptic.

Flowers:-

1) Inflorescence:

a) usually reddish.

b) consisting of one or several long, penulous, tail-like spikes.

2) Bracteoles:

a) ovate narrowing gradually to a point (acuminate).

b) usually with a pale or reddish bristle-like pointed axis (arista) formed by the

extended midrib.

c) about 1.2-1.5 times as long as the perianth, but usually not exceeding the

style branches.

3) Perianth segments:

a) 5, c. 2 mm long, obovate to broadly spathulate, ending abruptly in a sharp

point (mucronate), distinctly overlapping.

Fruit:-

a) 2-2.5 mm, usually longer than the perianth.

b) weakly wrinkled.

c) splitting transversely.

1) Seed:

a) c. 1 mm.

b) black, brownish or white.

Key features:-

1) Terminal inflorescence usually tail-like, pendulous, reddish or purplish.

2) Perianth segments distinctly overlapping.

Habitat:- Fallow fields, gardens and ruderal places. 0-600(-1000) m.

Distribution:- Scattered in Greece. A "homeless", cultivated as an ornamental and

maybe not fully naturalised in Greece. Rare on Crete, currently known from only

three locations in the west.

Flowering time:- May-Nov.

Photos by:- An Other