AMARANTHUS CAUDATUS

Family and Genus:- See- AMARANTHACEAE

Common Name:- Love-lies-bleeding

Homotypic Synonyms:- None

Meaning:- Amaranthus (Gr) Unfading, reference to the everlasting flowers.

Caudatus (L) Produced into a tail, tailed.

General description:- Erect to arching annual.

Stems:-

1) 30-150 cm. stout not or sparingly branched, sparsely pubescent to almost

glabrous.

Leaves:-

1) 2.5-15 x 1-8 cm. long-petiolate, rhombic-ovate to elliptic.

Flowers:-

1) Inflorescence, usually reddish, consisting of one or several long, penulous, tail-

like spikes.

2) Bracteoles, ovate, acuminate, usually with a pale or reddish, arista, formed by

the extended midrib, about 1.2-1.5 times as long as the perianth, but usually not

exceeding the style branches.

3) Perianth segments, 5, c. 2 mm long, obovate to broadly spathulate, ending

abruptly in a mucronate, distinctly overlapping.

Fruit:-

1) 2-2.5 mm, usually longer than the perianth, weakly wrinkled, splitting

transversely.

2) Seed, c. 1 mm, black, brownish or white.

Key features:-

1) Terminal inflorescence, usually tail-like, pendulous, reddish or purplish.

2) Perianth segments, distinctly overlapping.

Click here for a glossary of terms used.

Habitat:- Fallow fields, gardens and ruderal places. 0-600(-1000) m.

Distribution:- Scattered in Greece. A "homeless", cultivated as an ornamental and

maybe not fully naturalised in Greece. Rare on Crete, currently known from only

three locations in the west.

Flowering time:- May-Nov.

Photos by:- An Other