Thursday, June 30, 2011

unknown pink amaranth ~ 06/30/11 ~ at home

best guess unknown goosefoot
best guess Chenopodium sp.
Amaranthaceae (formerly Chenopodiaceae)

I found a small, creeping volunteer sprout in my dead bougainvillea container. After I transferred it to its own container and propped it up, it quickly grew to about 18" tall with small pink flower clusters. I love how the new leaves also have a pink tinge. Does anyone know what this could be?

ps 07/11/12 - I believe Cindy is correct in that this is a type of amaranth. Considering it hitchhiked with another plant from who knows where (the bougainvillea was a gift), it could be any number of garden cultivars.

pss 10/04/11 - Thanks to a second post of this same plant 3 months later as it's setting seed, I have again revised my ID guess above from Amaranthus sp.

2 comments:

Cindy said...

Sorta reminds me of an amaranth. Is that pink blade a baby leaf or is it some type of sepal covering the tiny flowers?

Katie (Nature ID) said...

Cindy, I think you're right that it's an amaranth. The pink fades as the leaves grow larger. We have quite a bit of Amaranthus deflexus in the park below us, but I simply didn't make the connection that these could be related. I wonder if it'll continue to grow if I put it into a larger pot.