Amaranthus praetermissus
| Family: | Amaranthaceae |
| Full name: | Amaranthus praetermissus Brenan |
| Location: | Kyffhäuser (2416AD + 2416CB) |
| ID status: | Fairly certain |
| Afrikaans common name(s): | Misbredie, Varkbossie |
| English common name(s): | Pigweed |
| Synonym(s): | Amaranthus angustifolius auct. - sensu Adamson-- misapplied name Amaranthus schinzianus auct. - sensu Suess. & Podlech-- misapplied name Amaranthus thunbergii auct. - sensu Suess. & Podlech-- misapplied name |
| Status: | Native |
| Description: | Annual herb; Main stems erect, 0.20-1 m, branched mainly at the base, glabrous, papillose when young. Leaves with 10-15 mm petiole, glabrous, blade oblong to almost linear, not wavy, 1-4 X 0.1-1 cm, attenuate at the base, obtuse to subacute at the apex, mucronate. Inflorescences in axillary glomeruli of 0.4-0.6 mm in diameter, which tend to converge towards the apex of the stems, due to the fact that the internodes become shorter, apparently originating a foliose terminal inflorescence; bracts and bracteoles lanceolate, 0.75-2.2 mm, shorter than sepals, spin-cent. Flowers of both sexes in the same inflorescence. Staminate flowers with 4 ovate sepals, 2 mm, mucronate, 3 or 4 stamens. Pistillate flowers, with 4 or 5 lanceolate to oblong-lanceolate sepals, 1.5-3 mm, with erect or divergent acumen, 0.25-1 mm, (rarely rounded), green unbranched midvein; stigmas three, 0.5-0.75 mm. Dehiscent fruits, with a rough operculum, shorter than the calyx; seeds brownish-black, 1-1.2 X 0.75-1 mm, shiny. (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) Flowers: in small, axillary clusters; perianth very small, 2 mm long, green, male and female flowers intermixed. Female flowers with 4–5 perianth segments; leaves narrowly oblanceolate to narrowly elliptic-oblong; female perianth segments long-aristate. (from Kew eFloras website / Flora Zambesiaca) Erect annual herb, 15–75 (100) cm in height, simple or branched from below and sometimes for some way up the stem, quite glabrous, stem and branches more or less sulcate and angled, smooth or minutely papillose when young, upper branches elongate and lax to short and very densely floriferous. Leaves glabrous, c.12–60 x 1–10 mm including the slender petiole, which may be as long as the lamina; lamina linear to narrowly oblanceolate, narrowly elliptic or elliptic-oblong, long-attenuate below into the petiole, at the apex acute to obtuse with a very distinct, pale mucro up to 1.5 (2) mm long formed by the excurrent nerve. Flowers green, in dense axillary clusters c. 3–6 mm in diam., normally extending well down towards the base of the plant, the clusters approximate above, the superior leaves scarcely reducing, or sometimes so rapidly so that a few upper clusters are leafless; male and female flowers intermixed, the males more numerous in the upper clusters. Bracts and bracteoles pale-membranous with the lamina lanceolate, terminating in an arista (which may be up to as long as the lamina) formed by the percurrent nerve; bracteoles 2–3 mm, slightly more rigid and slightly longer than the bracts. Male flowers with 4 elliptic-ovate tepals 1.5–2 mm long, pale with a brownish midrib, distinctly mucronate, the mucro very variable in length. Female flowers with 4–5 tepals, tepals narrowly oblong to narrowly oblong-lanceolate or more rarely oblanceolate, (1.5) 2–3 mm long, tapering (rarely more abruptly narrowed) into the erect or spreading, pale or brownish, long mucro which is commonly c. half the length of the lamina. Styles 3, broad at the base and gradually narrowed above, c. 0.5–0.75 mm long. Capsule ovoid to obpyriform, somewhat shorter than the perianth, circumcissile, convolute-rugose, commonly blackish when dry. Seeds shining, compressed, lenticular, c. 1 mm in diam., only very faintly patterned centrally, more distinctly reticulate over a wide margin. (from JSTOR Global Plants website / Flora Zambesiaca) |
| 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 |
| Photographer: | AA Dreyer |
| Date of photograph: | 09 Apr 2017 |
| Camera make: | Canon |
| Camera model: | EOS 7D |
| Lens aperture: | f/11.0 |
| Shutter speed: | 1/250 s |
| ISO speed: | 2000 |
| Content last updated: | 18 Apr 2024 |
