AMARANTH FAMILY 67 



SUCKLEYA Gray 1875 SUCKLEYA 

 (Named for the American naturalist, Suckley) 



Sepals 4-5, united, petals none, stamens 4-5, ovary 1-celled, fruit with 

 crested margin and 2-toothed tip ; flowers monoecious, in axillary clusters ; 

 leaves roundish, toothed ; annual. 

 Stems spreading, 8-12 in. long; leaves 1-3 cm. long S. petioldris 



AMARANTACEAE AMARANTH FAMILY 



Sepals 3-5, often united, rarely none, petals none, stamens 3-5, ovary 

 1-celled, style 1 or none, stigmas 1-3, fruit a 1-seeded utricle or achene; 

 flowers greenish, or purplish, with papery bracts, in dense terminal or axil- 

 lary clusters; mostly annual herbs with alternate or opposite simple leaves, 



1. Leaves alternate; plants green 



a. Calyx always present AMARANTUS 



b. Calyx none in the pistil flowers ACNIDA 



2. Leaves opposite ; plant gray-woolly or gray-hairy 



a. Flowers in terminal spikes, densely woolly FROELICHIA 



b. Flowers in small axillary clusters CLADOTHRIX 



AMARANTUS Linne 1753 AMARANTH, PIGWEED 



(Gr. a-, not, mar ant os, withered, from the papery bracts) 



PL 9, fig. 21-22. 



Sepals 3-5, separate, greenish or purplish, petals none, stamens 3-5, 

 ovary 1-celled, stigmas 2-3, fruit a utricle splitting circularly or remaining 

 closed, 2-3-beaked ; flowers usually with 3 bracts, in dense, terminal spikes 

 or in axillary clusters; leaves alternate,- simple, entire or wavy; annual. 

 1. Flowers in terminal spikes 1-6 in. long 



a. Leaf axils with 2 spines A. spinosus 



b. Leaf axils not spiny 



(1) Spikes stout, 1-3 cm. thick A.retroftexus 



(2) Spikes slender, .5-1 cm. thick 



(a) Top of fruit falling off like a lid 



x. Bracts beneath the flower 3 A. hybridus 



y. Bract single A. Powelli 



(b) Fruit remaining closed 



x. Bracts spiny, twice as long as the sepals A. Pdlmeri 

 y. Bracts not spiny, about as long as the 



sepals A. Torreyi 



