448 AMARANTHACEAE 



near the base; bracts ovate, shortly acuminate, prickly pointed, the bractlets 

 similar but narrower ; calyx divisions converging over mature fruit and form- 

 ing a sort of beak, the wings irregular in shape and size. 



Obnoxious weed, native of Asia, only sparingly established as yet in Cali- 

 fornia. First appeared near Lancaster about 1890, Bakersfield in 1895, Stan- 

 islaus Co. in 1903, Antioch in 1900, Salinas Valley in 1910, and Solano Co. 

 in 1911. Now established and troublesome at Ceres. Abundant and highly 

 pernicious in the Dakotas, etc. 



Refs. SALSOLA KALI L. Sp. PI. 222 (1753), type European. Var. TENUIFOLIA G. F. W. 

 Mey. Russian Thistle, U. S. Bur. PI. Ind. Farmer's Bull. 10 (1893) and Div. Bot. Bull. 15 

 (1894); Univ. Cal. Agr. Exp. Bull. 107 (1895). 



AMARANTHACEAE. AMARANTH FAMILY. 



Ours coarse herbs with simple entire leaves. Flowers small, usually greenish, 

 inconspicuous, perfect or unisexual, in ours congested in spikes or clusters. 

 Calyx of 3 to 5 sepals, or sometimes only 1, persistent and more or less sca- 

 rious. Corolla none. Stamens 5, sometimes fewer. Ovary superior, 1-celled, 

 with 2 or 3 stigmas. Fruit a utricle, indehiscent, bursting irregularly or cir- 

 cumscissile. Embryo curved. About 500 species, all continents but mostly 

 tropical, none in the cold zones. 



Bibliog. Gray, A., Amblogyne (Proc. Am. Acad. 5: 168-170, 1861). Uline and Bray, 

 Synopsis of N. Am. Amaranthaceae (Bot. Gaz. 19: 267-272, 313-320, 1894; 20: 155-167, 

 337-344, 449-453, 1895; 21: 348-356, 1896). 



Leaves alternate; utricle mostly dehiscent 1. AMARANTHUS. 



Leaves opposite ; utricle indehiscent 2. CLADOTHRIX. 



1. AMARANTHUS L. AMARANTH. 



Annual weeds with alternate leaves and small green or sometimes purplish 

 glabrous flowers. Flowers bracteate, disposed in axillary or terminal spikes, 

 or in axillary clusters, usually monoecious or polygamous, rarely dioecious, 

 commonly with staminate and pistillate flowers in same cluster. Seed mostly 

 black and shining. Species 45, mostly tropical but also in the temperate 

 :zones of all continents. (Greek a-, not, and maraino, to fade, the spikes of 

 certain species retaining their color in drying.) 

 Utricle circumscissile, the top falling away as a lid. 



Sepals mostly narrowed upward; flowers monoecious. 



Flowers in dense terminal and axillary spikes; sepals 5, mostly unequal. 



Spikes stout 1. A. retroflexus. 



Spikes slender 2. A. hybridus. 



Flowers in small axillary clusters of short spikes. 



Sepals of same number in staminate and pistillate flowers. 



Sepals 3; plant erect, bushy-branched; utricle very rugose. .3. A. graecizans. 

 Sepals 5 or 4. 



Plant prostrate; utricle a little wrinkled 4. A. blitoides. 



Plant with ascending stems; utricle smooth 5. A. carneus. 



Sepals of staminate flower mostly 3, of pistillate flower mostly 1 . . 6. A. calif ornicus. 

 Sepals 5, mostly dilated upward. 



Flowers monoecious; pistillate sepals fimbriate 7. A. fimbriatvx. 



Flowers dioecious; pistillate sepals mostly retuse, mucronate 8. A. palmeri. 



Utricle fleshy, indehiscent; sepals 2 or 3; prostrate plant 9. A. deflexus. 



1. A. retroflexus L. ROUGH PIGWEED. Stoutish, commonly branched from 

 the base, with erect or ascending branches, 1 to 4 feet high ; herbage roughish 

 pubescent; leaves rhombic to oblong-ovate, petioled, 1 to 3 inches long; 

 flowers green, densely crowded in spikes; spikes axillary and terminal, erect 

 or slightly spreading, 1 to 4 inches long; bracts lanceolate-subulate, scarious 

 except the green carinate midrib, 1% to 3 lines long; sepals 5, unequal, oblong- 

 lanceolate, cuspidate, 1 line long or less; utricle wrinkled, surpassed by the 

 sepals. 



