Josiah Amaranth

According to J. D. Sauer (1972b), Amaranthus myrianthus Standley most probably is a hybrid between A. arenicola and A. greggii.

Plants glabrous or glabrescent. Stems erect to ascending, much-branched from base, 0.3-1 m. Leaves: petiole shorter than blade; blade ovate, or rhombic-ovate to elliptic, 1.5-4 × 0.5-2 cm, thick, coarse, base cuneate to rounded, margins entire, plane or irregularly undulate, apex rounded-obtuse to emarginate, with terminal mucro. Inflorescences mostly terminal, spikes to panicles, usually erect, thick, flexible. Bracts: of pistillate flowers with short, excurrent midrib, 1.5-2.5 mm, shorter than tepals, apex acute or acuminate; of staminate flowers shorter than tepals, apex acute. Pistillate flowers: tepals with dark, prominent midrib not excurrent, spatulate, subequal, 2-3 mm, apex obtuse to subacute, with terminal mucro; style branches spreading; stigmas 3. Staminate flowers: tepals 5, equal, 2-3 mm, apex obtuse to subacute; inner tepals: with apex indistinctly mucronulate; stamens 5. Utricles light brown, elliptic, 3 mm, equaling tepals, walls somewhat fleshy, smooth, indehiscent. Seeds dark brown, 1.2-1.7 mm diam., shiny.

La., Tex.; Mexico.

Flowering summer-fall.

Coastal sand dunes, sea beaches; 0-50m.

Amaranthus myrianthus Standley, Bull. Torrey Club 41: 506
1914.
Amaranthus Greggii Muelleri Uline & Bray, Bot. Gaz. 19: 272. 1894.
Stems prostrate or ascending, 3-10 dm. long, much branched, stout, succulent, glabrous or sparsely villous; petioles stout, 4—15 mm. long; leaf-blades rounded-oval to oval or nearly orbicular, 6-20 mm. long, 5-15 mm. wide, rounded or emarginate at the apex, rounded to cuneate at the base, thick and firm, very conspicuously veined, villous beneath, at least when young; inflorescence dioecious, of numerous paniculate many-flowered spikes, these dense or sometimes interrupted below, 6-40 cm. long and 1-2 cm. thick in the pistillate plants, the spikes of the staminate plants shorter, somewhat interrupted, few-flowered, 7 mm. or less in diameter; bracts 2 or 3 at the base of each flower, ovate or broadly ovate, acute, sometimes pungent-tipped, usually half as long as the sepals but sometimes nearly equaling them ; sepals of the staminate flowers oblong to oval, 2.5 mm. long, obtuse, apiculate, thin and scarious except along the single green nerve; sepals of the pistillate flowers 2 mm. long, spatulate, or narrowly oblong and narrowed toward the base, broadly obtuse to acutish, glabrous, rather thick and firm, much thickened and united at the base, the midnerve usually excurrent; stamens 5; style-branches 3, slender, elongate, divaricate; utricle obovoid, about equaling the sepals, thin-walled, nearly smooth, circumscissile; seed rotund, black and shining, about 1 mm.
in diameter.
Type locality: Vicinity of I,a Barra, 8 km. east of Tampico, Tamaulipas. Distribution: Seashores, Tamaulipas to Vera Cruz.

Amaranthus greggii S. Wats. Proc. Am. Acad. 12: 274. 1877
Stems stout, spreading or ascending, 3—9 dm. long, branched, striate, . green, glabrous below, sparsely villous about the inflorescence; petioles stout, 5-18 mm. long; leaf -blades oblong to oval or rhombicovate, 1.2-3.5 cm. long, rounded at the apex, acute to rounded at the base, thick and fleshy, deep-green, sparingly viscid-puberulent or glabrate, prominently veined beneath; flowers dioecious, in dense stout spikes 5-15 cm. long and 7-10 mm. thick, these interrupted below; bracts ovate, ovate-oblong, or lanceolate, one third to two thirds as long as the calyx, acute, the nerves excurrent; sepals of the pistillate flowers somewhat united at the base, spatulate, 3—3.5 mm. long, rounded at the apex or obtuse, or the outer ones acute, often crenulate, glabrous, 1-nerved, the nerves sometimes shortly excurrent; sepals of the staminate flowers oblong or oblong-ovate, 3.5 mm. long, acute, subulatetipped, 1-nerved, green along the nerves, elsewhere thin and scarious, villous, viscid; stamens 5; style-branches 3; utricle oblong, acutish, slightly exceeding or shorter than the sepals, indehiscent; seed 1.3 mm. long, slightly longer than broad, nearly black, shining.
Type locality: Near the mouth of the Rio Grande, TamauKpas. Distribution: Along the coast from Galveston, Texas, to Tamaulipas.

Amaranthus annectens Blake, Jour. Bot. 53: 103. 1915
Stems branched, procumbent or ascending, stout, striate, glabrous, or sparsely glandularpuberulent about the nodes; petioles 4—9 mm. long, submarginate ; leafblades oblong or oblongspatulate, 1-1.8 cm. long, 3-4.5 mm. broad, truncate or retuse and cuspidate at the apex, cuneate at the base, more or less glutinous, strongly nerved beneath; flowers dioecious; staminate spikes flexuous, simple and naked above, leafy and sparsely branched at the base, 17 cm. long, 1.1 cm. thick, the sepals oval, acutish, green-carinate, 2.3 mm. long, sparsely glandular; stamens 5; pistillate spikes flexuous, simple or branched at the base, naked, 7-25 cm. long, 0.8-1 cm. thick, the bracts oval-ovate, acute, 1.3-1.7 mm. long, the sepals broadly obovateoblong or obovate-spatulate, 2.2-2.9 mm. long, retuse, cuspidate, 1-nerved, scarious-margined ; utricle ovoid-fusiform, subangulate, slightly inflated, fleshy-coriaceous, indehiscent, a third longer than the inner sepals; style-branches 3 or 2; seed globose-ovoid, 1.6-1.7 ram. long, lustrous, brownish-black.
Type locality: Seashore, Celestdn, Yucatan. Distribution: Known only from the type locality.

Amaranthus greggii, also known as Gregg's amaranth or Josiah amaranth, is a glabrous annual flowering plant native to Texas, Louisiana, and Mexico. The plant can grow up to 1 m (3 ft) in height. It is found in sand dunes and near sea beaches. The species name greggii honors Josiah Gregg (1806–1850), a merchant, explorer, naturalist, and author of the American Southwest and Northern Mexico.