Amaranthaceae

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Amaranthaceae

The flowering plant

Flowering plant

The flowering plants or angiosperms are the most widespread group of Embryophytes. The flowering plants and the gymnosperms are the only extant groups of Spermatophyte....
family Amaranthaceae, the Amaranth

Amaranth

Amaranthus, collectively known as amaranth or pigweed, is a cosmopolitan genus of herbs. Approximately 60 species are presently recognized, with inflorescences and foliage ranging from purple and red to gold....
family, contains about 160 genera and 2,400 species. Most of these species are herb

Herb

A herb is a plant that is valued for qualities such as medicinal properties, flavor, scent, or the like....
s or subshrub

Shrub

A shrub or bush is a horticulture rather than strictly Botany category of woody plant, distinguished from a tree by its multiple stems and lower height, usually less than 5-6 m tall....
s; very few are tree

TREE

TREE was a Boston hardcore punk band formed in the summer of 1990. They were active in the Boston music scene until disbanding in 2002....
s or climbers.

This is a widespread and cosmopolitan family found mostly in subtropical and tropical regions, although many species belong in cool temperate regions.

In the APG II system

APG II system

A modern list of systems of plant taxonomy, the APG II system of plant classification was published in 2003 by the Angiosperm Phylogeny Group, APG, in...
, of 2003 (unchanged from the APG system

APG system

A modern list of systems of plant taxonomy, the APG system of plant classification was published in 1998 by the Angiosperm Phylogeny Group. The system is unusual in being based, not on total evidence, but on the cladistics analysis of the DNA sequences of three genes, two chloroplast genes and one gene coding for ribosomes....
, of 1998), the family is placed in the order Caryophyllales

Caryophyllales

Caryophyllales is an Order of flowering plants that includes the cactus, Dianthus caryophylluss, amaranths, ice plants, and most carnivorous plants....
.

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Encyclopedia

The flowering plant

Flowering plant

Amaranth

Herb

A herb is a plant that is valued for qualities such as medicinal properties, flavor, scent, or the like....
s or subshrub

Shrub

TREE

APG II system

A modern list of systems of plant taxonomy, the APG II system of plant classification was published in 2003 by the Angiosperm Phylogeny Group, APG, in...
, of 2003 (unchanged from the APG system

APG system

Caryophyllales

Caryophyllales is an Order of flowering plants that includes the cactus, Dianthus caryophylluss, amaranths, ice plants, and most carnivorous plants....
. It includes the plants formerly treated as the family Chenopodiaceae

Chenopodiaceae

Chenopodiaceae is a family of flowering plants. Although widely recognized in most plant classifications , the APG system and the APG II system have included these plants in the family Amaranthaceae on the basis of evidence from molecular phylogenies....
. The monophyly of this new, broadly defined Amaranthaceae has been strongly supported by both morphological and phylogenetic analyses. Well-known chenopodioid species include beet

Beet

The beet is a plant in the Amaranthaceae. It is best known its numerous cultivated varieties, the most well known of which is probably the red root vegetable known as the garden beet....
, goosefoot, quinoa

Quinoa

Quinoa is a species of goosefoot grown as a agriculture primarily for its edible seeds. It is a pseudocereal rather than a true cereal as it is not a Poaceae....
, and spinach

Spinach

Spinach is a flowering plant in the family of Amaranthaceae. It is native to central and southwestern Asia. It is an annual plant , which grows to a height of up to 30 cm....
. The main differences between Amaranthaceae and Chenopodiaceae are membraneous petals and stamens often united in a ring structure.

Prior to the incorporation of Chenopodiaceae, the Amaranthaceae (in their narrow circumscription) contained only about 65 genera and 900 species. Most of these species occur in tropical Africa

Africa

Africa is the world's second-largest and second most-populous continent, after Asia. At about 30.2 million km? including adjacent islands, it covers 6% of the Earth's total surface area and 20.4% of the total land area....
and North America

North America

North America is the northern continent of the Americas, situated in the Earth's northern hemisphere and almost totally in the western hemisphere....
. Some species are considered weed

WEED

WEED is a radio station broadcasting a Gospel format. Licensed to Rocky Mount, North Carolina, USA, it serves the area. The station is currently owned by Northstar Broadcasting Corporation....
s, but a number of others are popular garden ornamental plant

Ornamental plant

Ornamental plants are typically grown in the flower garden or as house plants. Most commonly they are grown for the display of their flowers. Other common ornamental features include leaves, scent, fruit, Plant stem and bark....
s, especially species from Alternanthera
Alternanthera

Alternanthera is a genus of approximately 80 herbaceous plant species in Amaranthaceae, the amaranth family. It is a widespread genus with a cosmopolitan distribution....
, Amaranthus, Celosia
Celosia

Celosia is a small genus of edible and ornamental plants, similar in appearance and uses to the amaranths. They are sometimes called cockscombs or woolflowers for their brightly colored, woolly flower heads which resemble cockscombs....
, and Iresine
Iresine

Iresine is a genus which have a number garden ornamental plants in the family Amaranthaceae. These plants are found in the wild in tropical America, and there are between 20 and 25 species....
. Notable members include amaranth

Amaranth

Tumbleweed

File:Tumbleweed 038 .jpgA tumbleweed is the above-ground part of a plant that, once mature and dry, separates from the root and rotation in living systems away in the wind....
s. Many of the species are halophyte

Halophyte

A halophyte is a plant that naturally grows where it is affected by salinity in the root area or by salt spray, such as in saline semi-deserts, mangrove swamps, marshes and sloughs, and seashores....
s, growing in salty

Sodium chloride

Sodium chloride, also known as common salt, table salt, or halite, is a chemical compound with the chemical formula SodiumChlorine....
soils.

The leaves

Leaf

In botany, a leaf is an above-ground plant Organ specialized for photosynthesis. For this purpose, a leaf is typically flat and thin, to expose the cells containing chloroplast to light over a broad area, and to allow light to penetrate fully into the tissues....
are simple, opposite or alternate, their margins entire or coarsely toothed, and without stipule

Stipule

In botany, stipule is a term coined by Carolus Linnaeus which refers to outgrowths borne on either side of the base of a leafstalk . A pair of stipules is considered part of the anatomy of the leaf of a typical flowering plant, although in many species the stipules are inconspicuous or entirely absent ....
s. In most cases, there are neither basal or terminal aggregations of leaves.

The flower

Flower

A flower, sometimes known as a bloom or blossom, is the reproduction structure found in flowering plants . The biological function of a flower is to mediate the union of male sperm with female ovum in order to produce seeds....
s are solitary or aggregated in cyme

Cyme

Cyme or CYME can refer to:* Cyme, a kind of Inflorescence#Organisation *Kymi, ancient Cumae, a city in Euboea, Greece*Cyme or Kymi, ancient Greek colony on the coast of Aeolia, present-day Namurt in Turkey...
s, spike

Raceme

A raceme is a type of inflorescence that is unbranched and indeterminate growth and bears pedicellate flowers — flowers having short floral stalks called Pedicel s — along the axis....
s, or panicle

Panicle

A panicle is a compound raceme, a loose, much-branched Indeterminate growth inflorescence with Pedicel flowers attached along the secondary branches ....
s and typically perfect (bisexual) and actinomorphic. A few species have unisexual flowers. The bracteate

Bracteate

A bracteate is a flat, thin, single-sided gold coin produced in Northern Europe predominantly during the Migration Period of the Germanic Iron Age , but the name is also used for later produced coins of silver produced in central Europe during the early Middle Ages....
flowers are regular with 4-5 petal

Petal

A petal is one member or part of the Corolla of a flower. The corolla is the name for all of the petals of a flower; the inner perianth whorl, term used when this is not the same in appearance as the outermost whorl and is used to attract pollinators based on its advertising coloration....
s, often joined. There are 1-5 stamen

Stamen

The stamen is the male organ of a flower. Each stamen generally has a stalk called the filament , and, on top of the filament, an anther , and pollen sacs, called sporangium....
s. The hypogynous ovary

Ovary (plants)

In the flowering plants, an ovary is a part of the female reproductive organ of the flower or gynoecium. Specifically, it is the part of the carpel which holds the ovule and is located above or below or at the point of connection with the base of the petals and sepals....
has 3-5 joined sepal

Sepal

A sepal is a part of the flower of angiosperms . Sepals in a "typical" flower are green and lie under the more conspicuous petals. As a collective unit the sepals are called the Wiktionary:calyx, and the collection of petals is called the Wiktionary:corolla....
s.

The fruit

Fruit

The term fruit has different meanings dependent on context, and the term is not synonymous in food preparation and biology. In botany, which is the scientific study of plants, fruits are the ripened Ovary of flowering plants....
can be an utricle, nut

Nut (fruit)

Nut is a general term for the large, dry, oily seed or fruit of some plant. While a wide variety of dried seeds and fruits are called nuts, only a certain number of them are considered by biologists to be true nuts....
, or circumscissile capsule

Capsule (fruit)

In botany a capsule is a type of simple, dry fruit produced by many species of flowering plants. A capsule is a dehiscent structure composed of two or more carpels, that, at maturity, split apart to release the seeds within....
, rarely a berry

Berry

In everyday English, a berry is a broad term for any small edible fruit. Most berries are juicy, round or semi-oblong, brightly coloured, sweet or sour, and don't have a stone or pit....
.