''Amaranthus dubius'', the red spinach, Chinese spinach, (), spleen amaranth, hon-toi-moi, yin choy, hsien tsai, or Arai keerai () is a plant species. It belongs to the economically important 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 i ...
.
This plant is native to South America, Mexico, and the West Indies, however; it is widely introduced throughout the world. The species occurs locally in France and Germany and is naturalized or invasive in tropical and subtropical regions of the United States (Florida and Hawaii), Africa, Asia, Australia and the Pacific.
Description
Usually it grows to a size of . It has both green and red varieties, as well as some with mixed colors. The green variety is practically indistinguishable from ''
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 ...
''.
It flowers from summer to fall in the tropics, but can flower throughout the year in subtropical conditions. It is a
ruderal
A ruderal species is a plant species that is first to colonize disturbed lands. The disturbance may be natural for example, wildfires or avalanchesor the consequences of human activities, such as construction ( of roads, of buildings, mining, et ...
species, usually found in waste places or disturbed habitats.
''Amaranthus dubius'' is considered to be a morphologically deviant
allopolyploid
Polyploidy is a condition in which the cells of an organism have more than one pair of ( homologous) chromosomes. Most species whose cells have nuclei (eukaryotes) are diploid, meaning they have two sets of chromosomes, where each set contains ...
. It is very close genetically to ''
Amaranthus spinosus
''Amaranthus spinosus'', commonly known as the spiny amaranth, spiny pigweed, prickly amaranth or thorny amaranth, is a plant that is native to the tropical Americas, but is present on most continents as an introduced species and sometimes a noxi ...
'' and other ''
Amaranthus
''Amaranthus'' is a cosmopolitan genus of annual or short-lived perennial plants collectively known as amaranths. Some amaranth species are cultivated as leaf vegetables, pseudocereals, and ornamental plants. Catkin-like cymes of densely pac ...
'' species.
As food
This species is valued as a leafy vegetable throughout South and Southeast Asia and also in Africa.
[Grubben, G.J.H. & Denton, O.A. (2004) Plant Resources of Tropical Africa 2. Vegetables. PROTA Foundation, Wageningen; Backhuys, Leiden; CTA, Wageningen.] It may be eaten raw in
thoran
Thoran ( ml, തോരൻ, pronounced ; or upperi in Northern Kerala is a class of dry vegetable dishes combined with coconut that originated in the Indian state of Kerala. This common dish is usually eaten with rice and curry and is also par ...
or cooked in
curry
A curry is a dish with a sauce seasoned with spices, mainly associated with South Asian cuisine. In southern India, leaves from the curry tree may be included.
There are many varieties of curry. The choice of spices for each dish in trad ...
and
bhajis. In
Uganda
}), is a landlocked country in East Africa. The country is bordered to the east by Kenya, to the north by South Sudan, to the west by the Democratic Republic of the Congo, to the south-west by Rwanda, and to the south by Tanzania. The ...
, it is commonly cooked with onions, tomatoes and peanut sauce.
[Goode, P.M. (1989) Edible Plants of Uganda. Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations]
References
External links
PROTAbase on ''Amaranthus dubius''*
{{Taxonbar, from=Q3238412
dubius
Asian vegetables
Plants used in traditional African medicine