Alternanthera brasiliana ‘Purple Knight’ with Sedum lineare ‘Variegatum’ on 7-3-12, #107-15.

Amaranthaceae Juss.

The plant family Amaranthaceae was named and described by Antoine Laurent de Jussieu in Genera Plantarum in 1789.

Plants of the World Online lists 186 accepted genera (as of 8-6-21 when I last updated this page). This family is commonly known as the Amaranth family.

I only have experience with a few of the 186 genera in this family. I enjoyed growing a few cultivars of Celosia argentea in 2012 when I lived in Mississippi. I moved back to the family farm in west-central Missouri in 2013 and brought seeds of the Celosia argentea ‘Cramer’s Amazon’ with me. They still come up by the THOUSANDS every spring. Gomphrena globosa make great bedding plants and I kind of wish they came up from seed every spring like the Celosia ‘Creamer’s Amazon’. Well, definitely not that many… Of course, the Amaranthus spinosus (Spiny Amaranth) is a wildflower/weed that anyone would definitely love to hate. I have a lot of memories of this species back to when I watched my grandpa digging them up in the pasture when I was a kid. Well, they are still here… Anyone would like the purple leaves of Alternanthera brasiliana ‘Purple Knight’ and the long hanging inflorescence of the Amaranthus caudatus ‘Love Lies Bleeding’.

For more information about this family of plants, please click on the links below. The links take you directly to the information about the family. You can click on the plant name in the caption to go to their pages.