| Classification |
| Kingdom: Plantae
Division: Magnoliophyta
Class: Magnoliopsida
Order Type: Eudicots-Caryophyllids
Order: Caryophyllales
Family: Amaranthaceae + Chenopodiaceae
Family Common Name: Amaranth Family
Genera: Amaranthus, Bassia, Beta, Celosia, Gomphrena, Iresine |
Defining Features: The presence
of bracts and a fused androecium helps to distinguish the Amaranth from
the Chenopod, to which it is similar.
Defining Morphology: Floral
Features: Flowers are actinomorphic and often bisexual. Inflorescence is
determinate, axillary or terminal spike or head with colorful bracts subtending.
Flowers lack a corolla. Some subtended by sterile flowers that are modified
into bristles or hooks. Flowers form only one seed. Ovaries are superior
with basal placentation. Fruit and Seed Features: Dicotyledon. Fruit an
achene, berry, capsule or utricle. Seeds are shiny. In some species endospem
is replaced by perisperm. Vegetative Features: Habit as herbs or suffrutescent
shrubs (rarely vines or succulent). Leaves simple, opposite or alternate.
Nodes often are swollen. Stipules are lacking.
Distribution: Cosmopolitan
with more in warmer regions with saline and arid habitats.
Economic Use: Agriculturally
as vegetables (spinach, sugar beet, beets and Swiss chard), nutritious
(high protein) seeds and as cultivated ornamentals.
Number of Genera Globally: 169
Number of Species Globally:
2,360
