AMARANTHUS

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Context:  Efforts are underway to popularise the inclusion of Amaranthus – a wide variety of leafy vegetables – as part of mixed cropping among farmers in the Mysuru region.

About:

• Amaranth, (genus Amaranthus), genus of 60–70 species of flowering plants in the family Amaranthaceae, distributed nearly worldwide.
• Several amaranth species are useful as food crops and are grown both for their leaves and for their edible seeds, which are a nutritious pseudocereal (nongrass seeds used like cereal grains).
• A number of species, including love-lies-bleeding (Amaranthus caudatus), prince’s feather (A. hypochondriacus), and Joseph’s coat (A. tricolor), are common garden ornamentals.
• Several species are considered weeds.
• Amaranth plants typically are annuals or short-lived perennials.
• The stems often are reddish in colour and sometimes are armed with spines; they bear simple alternately arranged leaves and often feature a pinkish taproot.
• The plants can be monoecious (flowers of both sexes are on the same individual) or dioecious (each individual produces flowers of a single sex).
• The small flowers typically feature colourful bracts and are arranged in dense showy inflorescences; a single plant can produce hundreds or thousands of seeds, borne singly in dry capsule fruits.
• The plants utilize a photosynthetic pathway known as C4 carbon fixation, which largely prevents photorespiration and thus increases drought tolerance.

https://www.thehindu.com/news/national/karnataka/reviving-cultivation-of-a-traditional-crop/article65567193.ece