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Genus:
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Amaranthus
L. To this day, amaranth grains are toasted much like popcorn and mixed with honey or molasses to make a treat called alegría (literally "joy" in Mexican Spanish).
Amaranth was used in several Aztec ceremonies, where images of their gods (notably Huitzilopochtli) were made with amaranth mixed with honey.
Because of its importance as a symbol of indigenous culture, and because it is very palatable, easy to cook, and its protein particularly well suited to human nutritional needs,
interest in grain amaranth (especially A. Besides protein, amaranth grain provides a good source of dietary fiber and dietary minerals such as iron, magnesium, phosphorus,
copper, and especially manganese.
The flowers of the Hopi Red Dye amaranth were used by the Hopi Indians as the source of a deep red dye.
Amaranths are recorded as food plants for some Lepidoptera species including The Nutmeg and various case-bearers of the genus Coleophora: C.
Use as a leaf vegetable
Amaranth species are cultivated and consumed as a leaf vegetable in many parts of the world.
Amaranth as weed
Not all amaranth plants are cultivated. A new strain of the Palmer amaranth has appeared which is glyphosate-resistant and as a result cannot be killed by the widely used Roundup
herbicide.
Amaranth seeds, like buckwheat and quinoa, contain protein that is unusually complete for plant sources .
Myth, legend and poetry
Amaranth, or Amarant (from the Greek amarantos, unwithering), a name chiefly used in poetry, and applied to Amaranth and other plants which, from not soon fading,
typified immortality.
Aesop's Fables (6th century BC) compares the Rose to the Amaranth to illustrate the difference in fleeting and everlasting beauty.
A Rose and an Amaranth blossomed side by side in a garden, and the Amaranth said to her neighbour, "How I envy you your beauty and your sweet scent! (ll 7-10 excerpted):
Yet well I ken the banks where Amaranths blow, Have traced the fount whence streams of nectar flow. Bloom, O ye Amaranths!
In ancient Greece the amaranth (also called chrusanthemon and elichrusos) was sacred to Ephesian Artemis.
"Amaranth" is also the name of a long Sapphic poem by the great imagiste H.D., and is based on Sappho's fragment 131.
In Orson Scott Card's novel Speaker for the Dead, amaranth is the only grass in the limited ecosystem of the planet Lusitania.
In Garth Nix's novel Abhorsen, the third chapter is entitled "Amaranth, Rosemary and Tears".
In the novel To Live Forever by Jack Vance, the members of the Amaranth Society have achieved immortality.
"Amaranth" is also the title of a music cd by composer Robert Agis.
The color "Amaranth" is the color of the flower of the amaranth plant. I'd shut my eyes to see"
Selected species
Amaranthus acanthochiton (Greenstripe) Amaranthus acutilobius (Sharplobe Amaranth) Amaranthus albus (White Pigweed, Prostrate Pigweed, Pigweed Amaranth)
Amaranthus arenicola (Sandhill Amaranth) Amaranthus australis (Southern Amaranth) Amaranthus bigelovii (Bigelow's Amaranth) Amaranthus blitoides (Mat
Amaranth, Prostrate Amaranth, Prostrate Pigweed) Amaranthus blitum (Purple Amaranth) Amaranthus brownii (Brown's Amaranth) Amaranthus californicus (California
Amaranth, California Pigweed) Amaranthus cannabinus (Tidal-marsh Amaranth) Amaranthus caudatus (Loves-lies-bleeding, Pendant Amaranth, Tassel Flower, Quilete)
Amaranthus chihuahuensis (Chihuahuan Amaranth) Amaranthus chlorostachys Amaranthus crassipes (Spreading Amaranth) Amaranthus crispus (Crispleaf Amaranth)
Amaranthus cruentus (Purple Amaranth, Red Amaranth, Mexican Grain Amaranth) Amaranthus deflexus (Large-fruit Amaranth) Amaranthus dubius (Spleen Amaranth, Khada
Sag) Amaranthus fimbriatus (Fringed Amaranth, Fringed Pigweed) Amaranthus floridanus (Florida Amaranth) Amaranthus gangeticus L (Elephant Head Amaranth)
Amaranthus greggii (Gregg's Amaranth) Amaranthus hybridus (Smooth Amaranth, Smooth Pigweed, Red Amaranth) Amaranthus hypochondriacus (Prince-of-Wales-feather,
Princess Feather) Amaranthus leucocarpus Amaranthus lineatus (Australian Amaranth) Amaranthus lividus Amaranthus mantegazzianus (Quinoa de Castilla)
Amaranthus minimus Amaranthus muricatus (African Amaranth) Amaranthus obcordatus (Trans-Pecos Amaranth) Amaranthus palmeri (Palmer's Amaranth, Palmer
Pigweed, Carelessweed) Amaranthus paniculus (Reuzen Amaranth) Amaranthus polygonoides (Tropical Amaranth) Amaranthus powelii (Green Amaranth, Powell Amaranth,
Powell Pigweed) Amaranthus pringlei (Pringle's Amaranth) Amaranthus pumilus (Seaside Amaranth) Amaranthus quitensis (Ataco, Sangorache) Amaranthus
retroflexus (Red-root Amaranth, Redroot Pigweed, Common Amaranth) Amaranthus rudis (Tall Amaranth, Common Waterhemp) Amaranthus scleropoides (Bone-bract Amaranth)
Amaranthus spinosus (Spiny Amaranth, Prickly Amaranth, Thorny Amaranth) Amaranthus standleyanus Amaranthus thunbergii (Thunberg's Amaranth) Amaranthus
torreyi (Torrey's Amaranth) Amaranthus tricolor (Joseph's-coat) Amaranthus tuberculatus (Rough-fruit Amaranth, Tall Waterhemp) Amaranthus viridis (Slender
Amaranth, Green Amaranth) Amaranthus watsonii (Watson's Amaranth) Amaranthus wrightii (Wright's Amaranth)
Images
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Loves-lies-bleeding (Amaranthus caudatus)
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Green Amaranth (A. hybridus)
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Seabeach amaranth (A. pumilus), an endangered species of amaranth
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Red-root Amaranth (A. retroflexus) - from Thomé, Flora von Deutschland, Österreich und der Schweiz 1885
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Spiny Amaranth (Amaranthus spinosus)
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Callaloo (Amaranthus tricolor "calaloo")
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Green Amaranth (Amaranthus viridis)
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Popping Amaranth (Amaranthus sp.)
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References and external links
^ Enama, M. (1890) Amaranthus hybridus Amaranthus spinosus Amaranthus viridis Flora online : Flora of North America Amaranthus Info Alternate Field Crops Manual
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Grains (Cereals and Pseudocereals)
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Amaranth - Barley – Buckwheat – Fonio – Job's Tears – Kañiwa – Maize (Corn) – Millet – Oat – Quinoa – Rice – Rye – Sorghum – Spelt – Triticale – Teff – Wild rice – Wheat (Bulgur
– Couscous – Kamut)
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