Amaranthus dinteri
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Image 1
Leaves and clustered flowers
20 Dec 2008
Image 2
Leaves and flowers
20 Dec 2008
Image 3
Stem and leaves
04 Jul 2012
Image 4
Habit
15 Apr 2017
Image 5
Stem and flowers
15 Apr 2017
| 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: | 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) |
| 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: | 01 Jun 2020 |
