Amaranthus blitum
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''Amaranthus blitum'', commonly called purple amaranth or Guernsey pigweed, is an annual plant species in the economically important plant family
Amaranthaceae Amaranthaceae is a family of flowering plants commonly known as the amaranth family, in reference to its type genus ''Amaranthus''. It includes the former goosefoot family Chenopodiaceae and contains about 165 genera and 2,040 species, making it ...
.


Description

''Amaranthus blitum'' is an erect or semi-prostrate annual plant. The single or branched stem can grow to tall. The green or purplish leaves are up to long on stalks of a similar length and are arranged spirally. They are simple, roughly triangular in shape and have entire margins. The inflorescence is a spike with the tiny male and female flowers clustered together. The fruits are small globular capsules containing disc-shaped seeds.


Distribution and habitat

Native to the Mediterranean region, it is naturalized in other parts of the world, including much of eastern North America, much of tropical Africa, Western Europe and Japan. In Britain it was first recorded in the wild in 1771 when it appeared in Essex. It occurred more frequently in scattered locations in southern England in the 19th century but has since decreased. It is established in Guernsey and elsewhere as a casual plant, springing up on waste ground, rubbish tips and cultivated areas, probably from wool waste, coconut fibre or birdseed.


Uses

Although not cultivated, this plant is gathered from the wild and eaten in many parts of the world.Grubben, G.J.H. & Denton, O.A. (2004) Plant Resources of Tropical Africa 2. Vegetables. PROTA Foundation, Wageningen; Backhuys, Leiden; CTA, Wageningen. The
Greeks The Greeks or Hellenes (; el, Έλληνες, ''Éllines'' ) are an ethnic group and nation indigenous to the Eastern Mediterranean and the Black Sea regions, namely Greece, Cyprus, Albania, Italy, Turkey, Egypt, and, to a lesser extent, oth ...
call the ''Amaranthus blitum'' var. ''silvestre'', (Modern Greek: ), and eat the leaves and the tender shoots cooked in steam or boiled and then served with
olive oil Olive oil is a liquid fat obtained from olives (the fruit of ''Olea europaea''; family Oleaceae), a traditional tree crop of the Mediterranean Basin, produced by pressing whole olives and extracting the oil. It is commonly used in cooking: f ...
,
lemon The lemon (''Citrus limon'') is a species of small evergreen trees in the flowering plant family Rutaceae, native to Asia, primarily Northeast India (Assam), Northern Myanmar or China. The tree's ellipsoidal yellow fruit is used for culin ...
and
salt Salt is a mineral composed primarily of sodium chloride (NaCl), a chemical compound belonging to the larger class of salts; salt in the form of a natural crystalline mineral is known as rock salt or halite. Salt is present in vast quantitie ...
. Similarly, it is also picked as young shoots in
Lebanon Lebanon ( , ar, لُبْنَان, translit=lubnān, ), officially the Republic of Lebanon () or the Lebanese Republic, is a country in Western Asia. It is located between Syria to the north and east and Israel to the south, while Cyprus li ...
and cooked in olive oil, onion, chilli, and
burghul Bulgur (from tr, bulgur, itself from fa, بلغور, bolġur (bolghur)/balġur (balghur), groats ), also riffoth (from biblical he, ריפות, riffoth) and burghul (from ar, برغل, burġul ), is a cracked wheat dish found ...
, seasoned with salt and drizzled with lemon juice before eating with pita bread. It is considered a side dish and particularly popular in the north of
Lebanon Lebanon ( , ar, لُبْنَان, translit=lubnān, ), officially the Republic of Lebanon () or the Lebanese Republic, is a country in Western Asia. It is located between Syria to the north and east and Israel to the south, while Cyprus li ...
.


Related plants

The closely related ''
Amaranthus viridis ''Amaranthus viridis'' is a cosmopolitan species in the botanical family Amaranthaceae and is commonly known as slender amaranth or green amaranth. Description ''Amaranthus viridis'' is an annual herb with an upright, light green stem that grows ...
'', the slender amaranth or green amaranth, is also widely eaten.


References


External links


PROTAbase on ''Amaranthus blitum''
* {{Taxonbar, from=Q160572
blitum ''Blitum'' is a genus of flowering plants in the amaranth family Amaranthaceae, subfamily Chenopodioideae. It is closely related to genus ''Spinacia''. Its 12 species were traditionally placed in the genera ''Chenopodium'', ''Monolepis'', or ''Sc ...
Plants described in 1753 Taxa named by Carl Linnaeus Leaf vegetables