124 AMARANTHACEAE (AMARANTH FAMILY) 
SPINY AMARANTH 
Amarédnthus spindsus, L. 
Other English names: Prickly Careless Weed, Soldier Weed. 
Introduced. Annual. Propagates by seeds. 
Time of bloom: June to September. 
Seed-time: Late July to November. 
Range: Massachusetts to Michigan, Illinois, and Kansas, south- 
ward to the Gulf of Mexico. 
Habitat: Cultivated ground, meadows, lawns, and waste places. 
A native of tropical America and a very common and troublesome 
weed, particularly in the Southern States. Not known north of 
Mason and Dixon’s Line until after the Civil War, when it suddenly 
appeared in many places — most probably transported in the feed- 
Fie. 77. —Spiny Amaranth 
(Amaranthus spinosus). X }. 
bags of returning cavalrymen, which is 
the reason why it is called Soldier 
Weed, not because of its own weapons. 
Stem one to four feet tall, stout, 
grooved, erect, smooth, branching and 
bushy, dark green or often purplish 
red. Leaves one to three inches long, 
broadly lance-shaped, pointed at both 
ends, the lower ones with long petioles ; 
at the base of each leaf is a pair of 
diverging stipular spines, one-fourth to 
one-half inch long, rigid, keen as awls. 
Flowers small, greenish, the upper ones 
mostly staminate, forming long, slender 
spikes; fertife ones below in the axils, 
the clusters usually nearly globular; 
bracts awl-like, about as long as the 
scarious, sharp-pointed sepals ; stamens 
five. Seed very small, lens-shaped, 
smooth, dark, shining brown, imper- 
fectly covered by the utricle; it is too 
often an impurity of other seeds, 
and, like all its family, is possessed 
of long vitality in the soil. (Fig. 
77.) 
