Amaranthus australis
Content
Description
Annual, dioecious herb, 1.0-2.5(-4.0) m; stems branched, erect or decumbent, glabrous, somewhat thickened and hollow at base. Petiole long, to 10 cm; blade lanceolate, ovate or ovate-lanceolate, 6-30 x 1.5-14 cm, long-acuminate at apex, acute to rounded at base, undulate, glabrous. Inflorescence of large, terminal and axillary, lax panicles, sometimes massed as a flowering top to ca. 30 cm long, often drooping at apex; bracts 3, ovate, acute, persistent, shorter than tepals. Male flowers in narrow panicles 3-9 cm long; tepals ovate, 2.5-3 mm long, mucronate or acuminate, 1-veined; stamens 5. Female flowers in panicles 6-15 cm long; bracts of female flowers 3, rigid, resembling tepals; tepals absent; ovary ovoid, subglobose, 3- to 5-angled, stigmas 2-5. Utricle dehiscent or indehiscent, obovoid or turbinate, 1.5-2.5 mm long, 3- to 5-angled, as long as or shorter than bracts; seed brown, lenticular, lustrous, puncticulate.