Amaranthaceae
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Authority
Gleason, Henry A. & Cronquist, Arthur J. 1991. Manual of vascular plants of northeastern United States and adjacent Canada. lxxv + 910 pp.
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Family
Amaranthaceae
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Scientific Name
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Description
Family Description - Fls small, hypogynous or nearly so, generally regular, perfect or less often unisexual; sep mostly 3–5, seldom only 1 or 2 or even wanting, generally dry and scarious or membranous, distinct or ± connate at the base; pet none; stamens generally as many as the sep and opposite them, seldom fewer; filaments distinct or more often connate at the base into a tube, the tube often produced into teeth or lobes between the anthers, in extreme cases (e.g., Froelichia) the androecium simulating a small, sympetalous cor with filaments attached at the sinuses; gynoecium of 2–3(–4) carpels united to form a compound, unilocular ovary with a single, often evidently lobed style; ovule usually solitary and basal, or in a few genera (e.g., Celosia) the ovules several on a basal or short, free-central placenta; ovules ± distinctly campylotropous; fr a utricle or a small nut, or a circumscissile, 1-seeded capsule (pyxis), often subtended or ± enclosed by the persistent cal; seeds lenticular, with an elongate, dicotyledonous embryo surrounding the abundant perisperm; herbs, seldom climbers or shrubs, producing betalains but not anthocyanins, with simple, exstipulate, alternate or opposite lvs; fls solitary to more often in cymose or variously compound infls, often subtended by scarious or membranous (sometimes conspicuously pigmented) bracts or bracteoles. 65/900.
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Common Names
The amaranth family