Amaranthus graecizans L.
mat amaranth
Erect or spreading, much-branched, glabrous or almost glabrous, annual herb to c. 80 cm high. Stems angled, glabrous or puberulent, white, slightly pink towards base. Petiole slender, < to slightly > lamina. Lamina 1-2.5 × 0.3-1.5 cm, obovate-lanceolate, obovate, or suborbicular, glabrous, sometimes with greyish central band above when fresh; base cuneate or attenuate; apex obtuse or emarginate, mucronate; lvs on non-flowering plants broadest. Infl. an axillary cluster of greenish fls, present in nearly all lf axils. Bracteoles 3-4.5-(5) mm long, lanceolate-subulate, slightly folded, with acute but not pungent keel. Tepals 3, unequal, 1.5-3 mm long, oblong or lanceolate; keel green; apex acute, acuminate to subulate. Fr. subglobose, = to > tepals, slightly rugose, circumscissile at c. middle. Seed 1-1.5 mm diam., globose or subglobose, dark brown.
N.: Auckland City, East Cape, Dargaville; S.: most common in C. Otago, also collected from Christchurch and Timaru.
Probably tropical Africa to Mediterranean region 1944
Dry, stony or gravelly waste places on roadsides and riverbanks.
FL Dec-Feb.
The length and shape of the bracteoles in N.Z. plants does not always agree well with descriptions of A. graecizans in other Floras, e.g., the bracteoles sometimes scarcely exceed the tepals. North Id specimens have flat bracteoles and subulate tepals easily exceeding the smooth fr.; such plants resemble the related A. albus, but are treated under A. graecizans here because they lack the spiny bracteoles typical of A. albus.
Healy, A. J., Trans. Roy. Soc. N.Z. 74 : 222 (1944), recorded A. blitoides S. Watson for N.Z., but the specimen on which this record was based (CHR 118326, Christchurch, Healy, 24.3.1959) is referred here to A. graecizans because the 3 tepals do not exceed the fr. The sp. has also been often known overseas as A. angustifolius Lam.
