Description
provided by eFloras
Plants annual, glabrous. Stems prostrate, whitish or tinged with red, much-branched from base, 0.1-0.5 m, rather fleshy. Leaves: petiole 1/2 or less as long as blade; blade pale green, veins prominent, obovate, spatulate, or oblanceolate to linear, 0.3-2(-3) × 0.2-1.5 cm, base cuneate, margins entire, plane or slightly undulate, apex obtuse to subacute, with prominent mucro. Inflorescences axillary clusters borne from bases to tops of plants. Bracts of pistillate flowers linear, 0.5-1 mm, ± equaling tepals. Pistillate flowers: tepals 1-3, narrowly lanceolate, unequal, usually with only 1 well-developed tepal, largest 1-1.2 mm, apex acute to acuminate; stigmas 3. Staminate flowers intermixed with pistillate; tepals (2-)3; stamens 3. Utricles subglobose, 1-1.2 mm, smooth or wrinkled (especially in dry plants), dehiscence regularly circumscissile or tardily dehiscent. Seeds very dark reddish brown, lenticular, (0.6-)0.7-1 mm diam., shiny.
- license
- cc-by-nc-sa-3.0
- copyright
- Missouri Botanical Garden, 4344 Shaw Boulevard, St. Louis, MO, 63110 USA
Distribution
provided by eFloras
Alta., Sask.; Calif., Idaho, Kans., Mont., Nebr., Nev., Oreg., S.Dak., Tex., Utah, Wash., Wyo.
- license
- cc-by-nc-sa-3.0
- copyright
- Missouri Botanical Garden, 4344 Shaw Boulevard, St. Louis, MO, 63110 USA
Habitat
provided by eFloras
Seasonally moist flats, shores of water bodies, waste places, other disturbed habitats; 0-2800m.
- license
- cc-by-nc-sa-3.0
- copyright
- Missouri Botanical Garden, 4344 Shaw Boulevard, St. Louis, MO, 63110 USA
Synonym
provided by eFloras
Mengea californica Moquin-Tandon in A. P. de Candolle and A. L. P. P. de Candolle, Prodr. 13(2): 270. 1849
- license
- cc-by-nc-sa-3.0
- copyright
- Missouri Botanical Garden, 4344 Shaw Boulevard, St. Louis, MO, 63110 USA
Comprehensive Description
provided by North American Flora
Amaranthus californicus (Moq.) S. Wats. Bot. Calif. 2: 42
1880.
Mengea calif ornica Moq. in DC. Prodr. 13 2 : 270. 1849.
Amaranthus carneus Greene, Pittonia 2: 105. 1890.
Amaranthus albomar ginatus UHne & Bray, Bot. Gaz. 19: 318. 1894.
Stems prostrate, slender or stout, much branched from the base, 8-50 cm. long, whitish or tinged with red; leaves numerous, often crowded, pale-green, the petioles 2-18 mm. long, the blades subrotund to obovate or spatulate-oblanceolate, 3-25 mm. long, obtuse or rounded at the apex, acute to cuneate-attenuate at the base, glabrous, often white-margined and with
white nerves, sometimes purplish beneath; flowers monoecious, in small, few-flowered, dense or loose, often leafy, axillary clusters; bracts lanceolate, acute, subulatetipped, about equaling the flowers; sepals of the staminate flowers 3 or 2, elliptic-lanceolate or oblong-elliptic, scarious; sepals of the pistillate flowers 1, 2, or 3, inconspicuous, one narrowly lanceolate, acute or acuminate, the others usually reduced and scale-like; stamens 1 or 2; utricle subglobose, tardily dehiscent, often tinged with red or purple; seed dark reddish-brown, 0.6-0.8 mm. in diameter.
Type; locality: California.
Distribution: Southern Washington and Alberta to central California and Nevada.
- bibliographic citation
- Paul Carpenter Standley. 1917. (CHENOPODIALES); AMARANTHACEAE. North American flora. vol 21(2). New York Botanical Garden, New York, NY
Amaranthus californicus: Brief Summary
provided by wikipedia EN
Amaranthus californicus is a species of flowering plant in the amaranth family known as California amaranth. It is a glabrous monoecious annual that is native to most of the western United States and Canada. The plant grows from 10 to 50 cm (3.9 to 19.7 in) in length. It is found in moist flats or near bodies of water, and it blooms from summer to fall.
- license
- cc-by-sa-3.0
- copyright
- Wikipedia authors and editors