Sorting out some amaranths
| Amaranthus hybridus, aka Smooth Amaranth, stems can be red or green |  |
| Smooth Amaranth red leaf hairy, green can be hairless. |  |
| Smooth Amaranth flowers are short, petiole one half the lenght of the leaf to as long as the leaf. |  |
| Smooth Amaranth flower |  |
| Smooth Amaranth, green form. |  |
| Amaranthus palmeri, Palmer Amaranth: Female left, Male right |  |
| Palmer Amaranth, female flower is very long. Photo by Univ. of Fla. EDIS |  |
| Palmer Amaranth, female flower is bristly. Photo by Univ.of Fla. EDIS |  |
| Palmer Amaranth, male flower is also long. Photo by Univ. of Fla. EDIS |  |
| Palmer Amaranth, male flower is soft. Photo by Univ. of Fla. EDIS |  |
| Palmer Amaranth, leaf petiole is as long as leaf or longer. Leaf also has white ribs on back. Top of leaf may or may not have a white chevron watermark. Photo by Univ. of Fla. EDIS |  |
| Amaranth viridis, Calalu, Smooth Amaranth, leaves can notched. Vlita (βλήτα) in Greek |  |
| Smooth Amaranth’s leaves can have chevrons. It can also have many branches |  |
| Smooth Amaranth flowers can be very long a droopy |  |
| Smooth Amaranth, note red coloring of flower. |  |
Thanks for the update Deane! I’m liking this style of posting. Be great if you could do it with some other plants.
This display has been extremely helpful.
Yup great job! U should find some herbicide resistant superweed amaranth and sell it. Shhh. Wonder if those “superweeds” are as poisonous as their GMO rivals.
The photos were very helpful, but please add your usual summary at the end. Thanks.
Well, now I’m completely confused. I don’t know if I have Palmer Amaranth or Smooth Amaranth, but it doesn’t matter. I’m still going to eat it.
Always remember: Amaranth (COmmon name ‘Pigweed’ is a concentrate-or of nitrates, plants from nitrate-fertilized area should only be eaten in moderatio. You are corect, volumes could be written about Amaranth. Mother Earth News in an article several years ago stated that amaranth could feed the world because it can be grown in arid and other extreme environs such as Etheopia where phamon is a constant problem. Makes you wonder why there is still starvation in the world when we know the answers but continue to send relief foods rather than knowledge to these areas. We have use the greens as well as grain on myshow ‘Cooking WIld’.
Arn’t there many other Amaranths? We eat them in India. I have personally picked many other varieties and eaten them. One I have picked in the past even has prickly thorn like things.
I found an Amaranth with little prickly thorn like things on the plant. I live near Atlanta GA.
I would rather have the Amaranth that does not have thorns.
I would post a picture, but I don’t know how to post it on here.
Last year here in the Himalayas, we bought seeds from an old guy selling them on the street side. Anything we didn’t have, we bought and planted one garden bed. One was some kind of red amaranth that made a nice pot herb, and gave off strong dark pink colouring in the food. When we made homemade ketchup, it added a rich red to the orangey tomato red, and it lent a nice vegetable flavor overtone. But this year we can’t remember the name, can’t find the old seed seller, and so we can’t plant it again! Oh well.
Hi,
We have those here in Malaysia. 🙂
Pretty cheap and easy to get em too. Let me know if you want some. I can send. I am actually encouraging my local communities around Malaysia to grow their own edible gardens and forage more from surrounding areas. I forage weeds for my daily salads as well as trying out gardening in confine spaces.
We also have these wild amarath seeds if anyone’s interested. Not that I am selling em. Would probably send you some if you can send me some seeds too from your sides. 🙂
Cheers!
celia
It isn’t a good idea to mail seeds to other countries or areas as the new plants could take hold and crowd out other native plants both edible and non edible In fact it is illegal in most countries too.
Thank you for all of the hard work you put into this website. When searching for a specific plant i often end up at eattheweeds. I am passionate about wild food and would like to be able to identify more species in the Bahamas. Sea pickle and coconut only takes you so far. This season I will try to make gum from the wild sapadilla and of course enjoy the fruits (thanks to you).
I am also from Malaysia. Is this also called _”Bayam merah” in Malay?.
I am also interested in knowing about edible weeds and it will be great if you could share some info and ideas. Regards, Betsy
Bayam merah is Amaranthus tricolor and is edible.
“Loves lie Bleeding” is the name of the red Amaranth I believe you are looking for. The seeds get very red and beautiful.
Victoria, There is a red Amaranth in those parts of the world that is not “Loves lie Bleeding”. So I still wonder. Say is “Loves lie Bleeding” edible?
I love to eat lambs quarter or pigweed as some call it, but I always thought that the purple coloring on the leaves indicated somthing about the soil. Is this true?
No. While “discoloration” can be an indicator of disease, insects or soil issue, some plants just are multi-colored and Chenoposiums and Amaranths fit the bill.
the purple coloration in Chenopodium is due to the accumulation of betalains. it is (often) a sign of stress in the plant (insufficient or too much N? one of those), but i cannot imagine it would be a problem for you to eat (but who knows!).
Lambs quarter is not the same thing as Amaranth.
Lambs quarter is Chenopodium spp.
Amaranth is Amaranthus spp.
I was yanking these out of my garden. Oppsy! I can’t wait too try the leaves and make grain flower with them. I should have known better. Thank!
Some are to be eaten as grains and some for their leaves. To use as grain the variety should have fat seeds or else it is not worth the trouble.
Callaloo is a very common variety of Amaranth throughout the Caribbean and Latin America (though in some places Callaloo refers to young leaves of xanthosoma, colocasia, or even allocasia, or to a dish made with greens and other ingredients). It is often self-seeding, since people pick the leaves but generally do not eat the seeds (though young flowering heads are often boiled up along with the leaves). So it is kind of semi-domesticate – truly wild plants tend to have smaller leaves, bigger seed heads, and more fiber.
What is the deal with “nitrates”, they make you sick or poison you??
It was thought that the nitrates in food concentrated in your kidneys and could lead to kidney stones. Now science is not sure. What we do know is that nitrates are higher in well fertilized plants and in certain green vegetables – spinach and any green that can be used as a spinach substitute basically. They seem to concentrate the nitrates in the parts we eat. FWIW they may be harder on people with certain diseases that affect the kidneys, so that needs to be taken into consideration.
As far as that goes, I lived on cooked greens (canned spinach was all I could keep down…) for 3 months while I was pregnant with no ill effects… my kid turned out fine, kidneys still work.
I have the smooth amaranth growing in my garden in Greece. Are all of the parts of the plant edible? Any recipes to share? Thank you for your posts. Very helpful! cheers, Mika
When young and tender all the above ground parts of the Amaranthus species is edible.
Cook them as you would any other greens. They have a great flavor. The leaves don’t have to be particularly young, just not at the end of their lives.
Dean,
I found a great spot at a local construction site
Located next to the backside of The Daytona Speedway and the smaller side of the Airpor(Cesnas and smaller planes fly out of)
There is a new Portion of Emery Riddle Flight School going up across the small road id a drain ditch and a row ow of untaimed grass and WEEDSSSS. haha.
I found atleast 8 identifiable edible species growing to include. Tansy Mustard , another yellow flowered mustard,Spiderwart,of course peppergrass, Indian Plantain Thistle the pricly kind and a few more I could not identify.
Just thought you and a few others may want to see before they fade away.
P.S. I plan on picking some of the mustard for home consumtion but will leave a bit for any others whom may be interested.
John
Be careful! There may be lot of chemicals!
I would be careful if they are under a flight path.
First time on this website and find it an excellent forum. Just been pulling Amaranthus from my garden and putting it on the compost heap but will now cook some and try it as it
grows profusely here in New Zealand. See you again.
Can you eat Amaranth FLOWERS ?
Yes.
Thank You !
Thank you. I came looking for a current weed ID and found 2othersIvebeen looking for. Had no idea so many amaranths
Happy New Year and thank you for all that you do!