AMARANTHUS
Copyright infringement not intended
Context: Efforts are underway to popularise the inclusion of Amaranthus – a wide variety of leafy vegetables – as part of mixed cropping among farmers in the Mysuru region.
About:
- Amaranth, (genus Amaranthus), genus of 60–70 species of flowering plants in the family Amaranthaceae, distributed nearly worldwide.
- Several amaranth species are useful as food crops and are grown both for their leaves and for their edible seeds, which are a nutritious pseudocereal (nongrass seeds used like cereal grains).
- A number of species, including love-lies-bleeding (Amaranthus caudatus), prince’s feather (A. hypochondriacus), and Joseph’s coat (A. tricolor), are common garden ornamentals.
- Several species are considered weeds.
- Amaranth plants typically are annuals or short-lived perennials.
- The stems often are reddish in colour and sometimes are armed with spines; they bear simple alternately arranged leaves and often feature a pinkish taproot.
- The plants can be monoecious (flowers of both sexes are on the same individual) or dioecious (each individual produces flowers of a single sex).
- The small flowers typically feature colourful bracts and are arranged in dense showy inflorescences; a single plant can produce hundreds or thousands of seeds, borne singly in dry capsule fruits.
- The plants utilize a photosynthetic pathway known as C4 carbon fixation, which largely prevents photorespiration and thus increases drought tolerance.
https://www.thehindu.com/news/national/karnataka/reviving-cultivation-of-a-traditional-crop/article65567193.ece