AMARANTH FAMILY 449 



Very common in orchards, gardens and waste lands. Introduced from 

 tropical America. 



Ref. AMARANTHUS RETROFLEXUS L. Sp. PI. 991 (1753), the type from Pennsylvania, Kalm. 



2. A. hybridus L. GREEN AMARANTH. Stems erect or ascending, 1 to 4 

 feet high; herbage glabrous or sparingly pubescent; leaves broadly ovate to 

 ovate- lanceolate, 1 to 4 inches long; spikes slender, bristly, panicled, especially 

 at ends of branches; sepals about % as long as the subulate-lanceolate bracts, 

 oblong, acute or acuminate; utricle surpassing the calyx, scarcely wrinkled. 



Introduced from tropical America, occurring locally through the state. 



Locs. Yreka, Butler 543; Bouldin Island (Zoe, 4: 216); San Bernardino, Parish ("as 

 abundant as A. retroflexus"). The var. HYPOCHONDRIACUS Jepson n. comb., with purple- 

 tinged leaves, bracts and flowers, is also introduced in the lower Sacramento River islands 

 (Erythea, 1: 243). 



Refs. AMARANTHUS HYBRIDUS L. Sp. PI. 990 (1753), the type from Va. A. chlorostochys 

 Willd. Hist. Amarant. 34, t. 10, fig. 19 (1798); Parish, Zoe, 1: 125 (1890). Var. HYPOCHON- 

 DRIACUS Jepson. A. hypochondriocus L. Sp. PI. 991 (1753), the type from Va. 



3. A. graecizans L. TUMBLE-WEED. Stems freely and rigidly branching, 

 1 to 3 or 4 feet high, commonly of bushy outline; herbage light or somewhat 

 yellowish green, glabrous or nearly so; leaves oblong-spatulate or obovate, 4 

 to 8 lines long; flowers in clusters in short axillary spikes; bracts subulate, 1 

 to li/o lines long, much longer than the sepals; sepals 3, oblong, acute or 

 obtuse, thin, shorter than the rugose utricle. 



Summer weed; extremely abundant in cultivated fields; naturalized from 

 tropical America. The plant becomes rigid when dead and dry, and when 

 loosened by fall winds is carried across the fields as a tumble-weed, the seeds 

 being thus most effectively dispersed. 



Refs. AMARANTHUS GRAECIZANS L. Sp. PI. 990 (1753), the type from Va. A. albus L. Sp. 

 PI. ed. 2, 2: 1404 (1763) ; Jepson, Fl. W. Mid. Cal. 173 (1901). 



4. A. blitoides Wats. Stems branching, prostrate or spreading and mat- 

 like, !/2 to 2 feet long; herbage glabrous or nearly so; leaves spatulate to 

 obovate, 4 to 6 or 10 lines long, often white-nerved on the margins and be- 

 neath, drawn down to slender petioles; flowers in axillary clusters mostly 

 shorter than the petioles ; bracts ovate-lanceolate, little longer than the sepals ; 

 sepals 5 or 4, oblong or oblong-lanceolate, acute or cuspidate, slightly shorter, 

 or 1 or 2 equaling or slightly longer, than the utricle; stamens 3; utricle 

 somewhat wrinkled toward the summit. 



Washington to Colorado and south to Mexico. Introduced in California. 

 Locs. Rialto and Santa Monica, ace. Abrams (Fl. Los Ang. 133) ; Suisun and Niles, ace. 

 Greene (Pitt. 2: 105); Yreka, Butler. 



Var. crassius Jepson n. var. Stems 1 to l 1 /^ feet long, these and the branch- 

 lets coarsish, whitish, ascending; leaves not at all or scarcely white-veined. 

 (Caules pedales vel sesquipedales ramulique crassusculi subalbi ascendentes; 

 folia hand albo-venosa.) Reno, Nev., Jepson (type) ; Modoc Co., Manning 242. 



Refs. AMARANTHUS BLITOIDES Wats. Proc. Am. Acad. 12: 273 (1877), type spms. from 

 Nev. (Bot. Gaz. 19: 315). 



5. A. carneus Greene. Stems ascending, thickish, obscurely angled or 

 grooved, somewhat flexuous, 1 to iy 2 feet long; leaves narrowly obovate, 

 acute, bristly tipped, % to 1 inch long, acutely drawn down to a petiole; 

 floAvers in axillary clusters of short spikes little exceeding the petioles; axes 

 of the spikes thickish, flexuous; sepals 5, unequal, broadly oblong, acuminate 

 or acute, equaling or the longer ones exceeding the smooth utricle, all more 

 or less cuspidate-tipped; style short and thick, forming a distinct apiculation 

 to the utricle; stigmas 3. 



Siskiyou Co. (Yreka, Butler 1067). Idaho. 



Refs. AMARANTHUS CARXEUS Greene, Pitt. 2: 105 (1890), type loc. Beaver Canon, Idaho, 

 Greene. 



