View source for Amaranthaceae

{{Treatment/ID
|accepted_name=Amaranthaceae
|accepted_authority=Jussieu
|publications=
|common_names=Amaranth Family
|basionyms=
|synonyms=
|hierarchy=Amaranthaceae
|hierarchy_nav=<div class="higher-taxa"><div class="higher-taxon"><small>family</small>[[Amaranthaceae]]</div></div>
|volume=Volume 4
|mention_page=page 406
|treatment_page=page 405
}}<!--

--><span class="statement" id="st-undefined" data-properties=""><b>Herbs,</b> rarely subshrubs, annual or perennial; trichomes simple (branched in <i>Tidestromia</i>). <b>Stems</b> without nodal spines (<i>Amaranthus spinosus</i> sometimes with paired nodal spines). <b>Leaves</b> alternate or opposite, exstipulate, usually petiolate; blade margins entire (entire or serrulate in <i>Iresine</i>; entire, crispate, or erose in <i>Amaranthus</i>). <b>Inflorescences</b> cymules arranged in spikes, panicles, thyrses, heads, glomerules, clusters, or racemes; each flower subtended by 1 bract and 2 bracteoles (latter sometimes 1 or absent in <i>Amaranthus</i>). <b>Flowers</b> bisexual or unisexual (plants then monoecious or dioecious), hypogynous, generally small or minute; tepals mostly (1–)4–5 or absent, distinct or connate into cups or tubes, scarious, chartaceous, membranaceous, or indurate; stamens 2–5, filaments basally connate into cups or tubes, rarely distinct, alternating with pseudostaminodes (appendages on staminal tubes) or not, anthers 2-locular with 1 line of dehiscence or 4-locular with 2 lines of dehiscence; ovary superior, 1-locular; ovules 1 or, rarely, 2–many; style 1 or absent; stigmas 1–3(–5). <b>Fruits</b> utricles, dry, dehiscent or not. <b>Seeds</b> black, reddish brown, or brown, lenticular, subglobose or globose (rarely cylindric), usually small; embryo peripheral, surrounding mealy perisperm.</span><!--

-->{{Treatment/Body
|distribution=Nearly worldwide;most abundant in tropics;subtropics;and warm-temperate regions;evidently absent from alpine and arctic regions.
|discussion=<p>Genera ca. 65, species ca. 900 (12 genera, 80 species in the flora).</p><!--
--><p>Centers of diversity for Amaranthaceae are southwestern North America, Central America, South America, and Africa south of the Sahara Desert. Generic limits are not well defined in some groups; fewer than 60 or more than 70 genera could be recognized.</p><!--
--><p>Some species occur in severe habitats such as sandy, calcareous, gypseous, saline, or serpentine soils in deserts, semideserts, and seashores. Some species are weedy, including the major agricultural weeds in <i>Amaranthus</i>. Some species are cultivated as ornamentals, particularly <i>Amaranthus caudatus</i> (love-lies-bleeding), <i>A. hypochondriacus</i> (prince’s-feather), <i>A. tricolor</i> (Joseph’s-coat), <i>Celosia cristata</i> (cockscomb), and <i>Gomphrena globosa</i> (globe-amaranth). Native Americans domesticated white-seeded grain amaranths (<i>A. caudatus</i>, <i>A. cruentus</i>, and <i>A. hypochondriacus</i>) for use as cereal grains. Some species of <i>Amaranthus</i> and <i>Celosia</i> are potherbs.</p><!--
--><p>Amaranthaceae are usually divided into subfamilies Amaranthoideae (anthers 4-locular with two lines of dehiscence) and Gomphrenoideae Schinz (anthers 2-locular with one line of dehiscence). Amaranthaceae and Chenopodiaceae have long been recognized as allied families that share a number of features: generally small flowers, one perianth whorl, a syncarpous gynoecium with a superior ovary and often only one ovule, basal or free-central placentation, pollen characteristics, centrospermous embryo development, betalain pigments, and P-type form (c) sieve-element plastids.</p>
|tables=
|references={{Treatment/Reference
|id=carolin1983a
|text=Carolin, R. C. 1983. The trichomes of the Chenopodiaceae and Amaranthaceae. Bot. Jahrb. Syst. 103: 451–466.
}}{{Treatment/Reference
|id=eliasson1988a
|text=Eliasson, U. H. 1988. Floral morphology and taxonomic relations among the genera of Amaranthaceae in the New World and the Hawaiian Islands. Bot. J. Linn. Soc. 96: 235–283.
}}{{Treatment/Reference
|id=robertson1981a
|text=Robertson, K. R. 1981. The genera of Amaranthaceae in the southeastern United States. J. Arnold Arbor. 62: 267–314.
}}{{Treatment/Reference
|id=standley1915a
|text=Standley, P. C. 1915. The North American tribes and genera of Amaranthaceae. J. Wash. Acad. Sci. 5: 391–396.
}}{{Treatment/Reference
|id=standley1917b
|text=Standley, P. C. 1917b. Amaranthaceae. In: N. L. Britton et al., eds. 1905+. North American Flora…. 47+ vols. New York. Vol. 21, pp. 95–169.
}}
}}<!--

--><div class="treatment-key">
==Key==
<div class="treatment-key-group">
  
{| class="wikitable fna-keytable"
|-id=key-0-1
|1
|Distal leaves alternate
|[[#key-0-2| > 2]]
|-id=key-0-1
|1
|Distal leaves opposite
|[[#key-0-5| > 5]]
|-id=key-0-2
|2
|Flowers unisexual (plants monoecious or dioecious); utricles 1-seeded
|[[#key-0-3| > 3]]
|-id=key-0-2
|2
|Flowers bisexual; utricles 2+-seeded
|[[#key-0-4| > 4]]
|-id=key-0-3
|3
|Shrubs
|[[Iresine|Iresine]]
|-id=key-0-3
|3
|Herbs, annual, rarely perennial
|[[Amaranthus|Amaranthus]]
|-id=key-0-4
|4
|Leaf blades mostly lanceolate, ovate, or deltate; pseudostaminodes absent
|[[Celosia|Celosia]]
|-id=key-0-4
|4
|Leaf blades linear; pseudostaminodes alternating with filaments on staminal tubes
|[[Hermbstaedtia|Hermbstaedtia]]
|-id=key-0-5
|5
|Flowers unisexual (plants dioecious); inflorescences terminal, diffuse, open panicles
|[[Iresine|Iresine]]
|-id=key-0-5
|5
|Flowers bisexual; inflorescences terminal and/or axillary glomerules, heads, or spikes
|[[#key-0-6| > 6]]
|-id=key-0-6
|6
|Inflorescences sessile glomerules or condensed spikes, axillary
|[[#key-0-7| > 7]]
|-id=key-0-6
|6
|Inflorescences pedunculate heads or spikes, terminal and sometimes axillary near stem tips
|[[#key-0-10| > 10]]
|-id=key-0-7
|7
|Inflorescences several-flowered, axillary spikes; pseudostaminodes present
|[[Alternanthera|Alternanthera]]
|-id=key-0-7
|7
|Inflorescences 1-20-flowered, axillary glomerules; pseudostaminodes present or absent
|[[#key-0-8| > 8]]
|-id=key-0-8
|8
|Indumentum of branched or barbed trichomes, densely covering plant (rarely glabrous); pseudostaminoides present
|[[Tidestromia|Tidestromia]]
|-id=key-0-8
|8
|Indumentum of simple trichomes; pseudostaminoides absent
|[[#key-0-9| > 9]]
|-id=key-0-9
|9
|Tepals connate proximally, tips 1-veined; filament tubes inserted distally on perianth tubes; basal rosette leaves usually absent at anthesis
|[[Guilleminea|Guilleminea]]
|-id=key-0-9
|9
|Tepals distinct, 3-veined; filament tubes ± free from tepals; basal rosette leaves present at anthesis
|[[Gossypianthus|Gossypianthus]]
|-id=key-0-10
|10
|Inflorescences simple or compound spikes
|[[#key-0-11| > 11]]
|-id=key-0-10
|10
|Inflorescences globose or cylindric heads or spikes
|[[#key-0-12| > 12]]
|-id=key-0-11
|11
|Inflorescences mostly compound, interrupted spikes; tepals connate into indurate tubes with lateral crests or spines, lanate
|[[Froelichia|Froelichia]]
|-id=key-0-11
|11
|Inflorescences simple spikes or few-branched panicles, flowers progressively farther apart below; tepals basally connate into indurate tubes, without ornamentation, ± glabrous
|[[Achyranthes|Achyranthes]]
|-id=key-0-12
|12
|Inflorescences not immediately subtended by leaves
|[[Alternanthera|Alternanthera]]
|-id=key-0-12
|12
|Inflorescences immediately subtended by 2 or more leaves
|[[#key-0-13| > 13]]
|-id=key-0-13
|13
|Leaves fleshy, sessile; blade linear to narrowly obovate, glabrous except in axils
|[[Blutaparon|Blutaparon]]
|-id=key-0-13
|13
|Leaves not fleshy, petiolate or sessile; blade ovate to obovate, pilose at least abaxially
|[[Gomphrena|Gomphrena]]
|}
</div></div><!--

-->{{#Taxon:
name=Amaranthaceae
|author=Kenneth R. Robertson;Steven E. Clemants
|authority=Jussieu
|rank=family
|parent rank=
|synonyms=
|basionyms=
|family=Amaranthaceae
|illustrator=Yevonn Wilson-Ramsey
|distribution=Nearly worldwide;most abundant in tropics;subtropics;and warm-temperate regions;evidently absent from alpine and arctic regions.
|reference=carolin1983a;eliasson1988a;robertson1981a;standley1915a;standley1917b
|publication title=
|publication year=
|special status=
|source xml=https://jpend@bitbucket.org/aafc-mbb/fna-data-curation.git/src/f6b125a955440c0872999024f038d74684f65921/coarse_grained_fna_xml/V4/V4_799.xml
}}<!--

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