Amaranthus
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Authority
Acevedo-Rodríguez, Pedro & collaborators. 1996. Flora of St. John, U.S. Virgin Islands. Mem. New York Bot. Gard. 78: 1-581.
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Family
Amaranthaceae
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Scientific Name
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Description
Genus Description - Erect or prostrate annual herbs. Leaves alternate and petiolate, with entire or wavy margins. Flowers produced in dichasial in spikelike, terminal or axillary inflorescences. Flowers unisexual, subtended by 1 bract and 2 bracteoles; plants dioecious or monoecious. Tepals greenish, 3-5; stamens (2-)3-5, the anthers with filaments free to base, interstaminal appendages absent; ovary ovoid, rounded or compressed, with a single ovule, the style short, the stigma slender, with 2 or 3 branches. Fruit a thin-walled, circumscissile capsule (utricle), with persistent style at apex; seeds vertically oriented, lenticular or nearly globose, smooth and shiny.
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Distribution
About 50-60 species, mostly native in the New World.
Saint John Virgin Islands of the United States South America|