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Amaranthaceae - Amaranth or pigweed family
Townsend, C.C. (1988) Amaranthaceae FZ 9(1)
Description of the family
Annual or perennial herbs, sometimes woody at the base or, rarely, small shrubs (Psilotrichum scleranthum). Stipules 0. Leaves simple, alternate or opposite. Inflorescence various, bracteate; bracts hyaline to membranous, straw-coloured to white, subtending one or more flowers. Flowers bisexual or unisexual, mostly actinomorphic with 2 bracteoles, frequently in ultimate small 3-flowered cymes, the lateral flowers often sterile and modified into scales, spines, hooks or hairs. Tepals often green or white or variously coloured, usually 5, arranged in 1 whorl, membranous to firm, finally hardening and often falling with the ripe fruit. Ovary superior, 1-locular. Fruit a capsule, rarely a berry. Comment: Amaranthaceae is a family which lacks the usual differentiation into sepals and petals, possessing instead 1 whorl of variously coloured tepals and each flower usually subtended by 1 bract and 2 bracteoles. Worldwide: 71 genera and 750 species, mostly tropical and warm, few temperate. |
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More sample images from the Amaranthaceae (Click on each image to see a larger version and details of the record)
Links to genera: View: living plant images - herbarium specimen images - all images for this family
| Genus | Content |
| Achyranthes L. | Description, Image |
| Achyropsis (Moq.) Hook. f. | Description |
| Aerva Forssk. | Description, Image |
| Alternanthera Forssk. | Description |
| Amaranthus L. | Description |
| Celosia L. | Description, Image |
| Centema Hook. f. | |
| Centemopsis Schinz | Description |
| Centrostachys Wall. | Description |
| Cyathula Blume | Description, Image |
| Gomphrena L. | Description, Image |
| Guilleminea Kunth | Description |
| Hermbstaedtia Rchb. | Description, Image |
| Kyphocarpa (Fenzl ex Endl.) Lopr. | Description |
| Nothosaerva Wight | |
| Pandiaka (Moq.) Hook. f. | |
| Psilotrichum Blume | Description, Image |
| Pupalia A. Juss. | Description |
| Sericorema (Hook. f.) Lopr. | Description |
Other sources of information about Amaranthaceae:
Flora of Mozambique: cultivated Amaranthaceae pageFlora of Zimbabwe: Amaranthaceae
GRIN (Germplasm Resources Information Network) taxonomy for plants report for Amaranthaceae
Google: Web - Images - Scholar
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