Panicle Foxtail
| Panicle Foxtail | ||||||||||||
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Field with panicle foxtail |
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| Amaranthus cruentus | ||||||||||||
| L. |
The panicle foxtail ( Amaranthus cruentus ), also called panicle foxtail or dyer's foxtail and like other species of this genus amaranth , is a species of the amaranth genus ( Amaranthus ) within the foxtail family (Amaranthaceae).
description
Appearance and leaf
Amaranthus cruentus grows as an annual herbaceous plant , it forms a taproot and reaches heights of 30 centimeters to 2 meters. The plant parts are often reddish. The mostly upright or rarely ascending, branched stem is angular, bald or more or less densely covered with multicellular hairs ( trichomes ).
The alternate and spirally arranged leaves are divided into a petiole and a leaf blade. The petiole is relatively long with a length of 2.5 to 18 cm. The simple leaf blade is 6 to 20 cm long, lanceolate to ovate. There are no stipules . The cotyledons ( cotyledons ) are cm long, fleshy-stalked and about 1.5.
Inflorescence and flower
Amaranthus cruentus is monoecious, separate sexes ( Monözisch ). The terminal, paniculate entire inflorescence is composed of dense, spike-like partial inflorescences and has a length of 30 to 50 cm and a diameter of up to 15 cm. The uppermost partial inflorescence is mostly upright. The bracts, which are about 2 mm long, are dry-skinned below their center.
The almost sessile (subsessile) flowers have bracts , these are lanceolate with a long tip. The male flowers have four or five 2 to 2.4 mm long, pointed, spatula-shaped, overlapping tepals and five free, about 1 mm long stamens . The female flowers with the upper ovary always have five 1.2 to 1.8 mm long, almost identical tepals that are elongated to elliptical with a pointed to rounded upper end. The upright style is slender at its base and ends in three scars .
Fruit and seeds
The dark reddish, glabrous capsule fruits (a pyxidium or utricle) are obovate to rhombic with a length of 2 to 2.5 mm and contain only one seed. The ivory to yellowish or reddish-dark brown, smooth pseudo- grain seeds are about 1.4 millimeters in diameter, obovate to ellipsoidal and flattened, lens-shaped. The dicotyledonous embryo is curved (kampylotropic) and surrounds the starch-rich perisperm median. The thousand grain weight is only 0.5 to 1.1 grams, they are epigeal sprouting.
It grows up to a height of 2000 meters, but is not frost-resistant and can thrive on loose, well-drained, fertile, slightly acidic to alkaline soils, it prefers a sunny and sheltered location. The temperature range is 10-40 ° C, it prefers a large amount of precipitation. It is a C4 plant and qualitative short day plant (KTP), the yield is approx. 800-3000 kg / ha.
Chromosome number
The chromosome numbers are 2n = 32, 34.
distribution
Amaranthus cruentus originally comes from South America and was spread early over Central America to the southern areas of the eastern USA.
use
The relatively small seeds are easy to harvest. They are eaten as a pseudo-grain amaranth, especially in Mexico and India. This type of plant is now also grown in eastern Africa, for example in Sudan . The very nutritious seeds are ground and baked. When cooked, the seeds are gel-like. Because the small seeds are difficult to crush in the mouth, they will pass through the digestive system without being ingested. The mild-tasting leaves are eaten cooked. They contain many vitamins and minerals. Seedlings are used in salads.
The dyer's foxtail was used in Central America for dyeing, especially food. The flowers are used to color corn bread . Yellow and green dyes are obtained from all parts of the plant.
In Moldova , the panicle foxtail was used for abortion .
Taxonomy
The first publication of Amaranthus cruentus was made in 1759 by Carl Linnaeus in Systema Naturae , Editio Decima 2, S. 1269. synonyms for Amaranthus cruentus L. are: Amaranthus chlorostachys Willd. , Amaranthus hybridus subsp. cruentus (L.) Thell. , Amaranthus paniculatus L.
Common names
More are in part only regionally common names for the Amaranthus cruentus or were: Amarantenbaum , Floramour , foxtail , parrot feathers , parrot herb , Rüth Stirr ( Transylvania ), Strizolar ( Zillertal ), Tausendschön , Vasses besekla ( Middle Low German ) and Vasses Sagel (Middle Low German ).
literature
- GJH Grubben, OA Denton: Amaranthus cruentus L. from prota4u.org, accessed May 30, 2017.
- James Henrickson: Entry in The Jepson Manual Treatment . (Section Description and Distribution).
Individual evidence
- ↑ Common names in many languages.
- ^ Sergei L. Mosyakin, Kenneth R. Robertson: Amaranthus cruentus. In: Flora of North America Editorial Committee (Ed.): Flora of North America North of Mexico . Volume 4: Magnoliophyta: Caryophyllidae, part 1 . Oxford University Press, New York / Oxford a. a. 2003, ISBN 0-19-517389-9 , pp. 423 (English). , online .
- ^ Robert H. Mohlenbrock: Flowering Plants. SIU Press, 2001, ISBN 0-8093-2380-X , p. 119 f.
- ↑ GJH Grubbenvorst: Plant Resources of Tropical Africa. 2: Vegetables , Prota, Backhuys, 2004, ISBN 90-5782-148-6 , pp. 67-72.
- ↑ a b c d Entry in Plants for a Future .
- ↑ 9th Congress on Food Research and 5th Forum on Food Research and Technology ( Memento of the original from August 24, 2009 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link has been inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. (PDF; 174 kB).
- ↑ Comisión Nacional para el Conocimiento y Uso de la Biodiversidad: Recopilación y análisis de la información existente de las especies del género Amaranthus cultivadas y de sus posibles parientes silvestres en México. (PDF; 3.9 MB).
- ↑ Al. Borza, Valeriu Buturä: Rural herbal remedies in Moldova (Romania). Sudhoffs Archive for the History of Medicine and the Natural Sciences, Volume 31, 1/2, 1938, p. 84.
- ↑ First publication scanned at biodiversitylibrary.org .
- ↑ Amaranthus cruentus in the Germplasm Resources Information Network (GRIN), USDA , ARS , National Genetic Resources Program. National Germplasm Resources Laboratory, Beltsville, Maryland.
- ^ Carl Jessen : The German folk names of plants , published by Philipp Cohen Hanover 1882, page 23 f.
Web links
- Thomas Meyer: Data sheet with identification key and photos at Flora-de: Flora von Deutschland (old name of the website: Flowers in Swabia )
- Amaranthus cruentus from Useful Tropical Plants, accessed May 29, 2017.
- Amaranthus cruentus from vPlants, accessed June 2, 2017.