An erect annual herb with a dense flowering spike, widely eaten as a leafy green vegetable across Africa.
Smooth or green amaranth (Amaranthus hybridus, family Amaranthaceae) is an upright annual, much-branched to almost unbranched, usually 30 to 200 cm tall and occasionally 250 cm. It has a long history of cultivation as a food crop and is still sometimes grown on a small scale for its edible leaves and seeds; in India, where it is cultivated as a food, there are many named forms. It came originally from the Americas and is now widespread in the tropics, growing wild in farms and waste places. It seeds prolifically and has often escaped to become a weed of cultivated ground.
No amaranth is known to be poisonous, but plants grown on nitrogen-rich soil, especially with chemical fertiliser, concentrate nitrates in their leaves, which have been linked to health problems, so the database advises against eating plants grown with inorganic fertiliser. It is grown up to 1,300 metres, best at 12 to 30°C, and is killed at 4°C or below. The database gives its preferred rainfall as 400 to 600 mm a year but itself notes that these figures seem very low and that the plant grows where rainfall is much higher. It needs well-drained, fertile soil and a hot, sunny, sheltered position, and it is very prone to leaf-eating insects. Seed is sown in place or in a nursery bed and transplanted two to three weeks later; it germinates quickly in warm soil but poorly in cold soil, and cuttings root easily.
Source: Useful Tropical Plants database (Fern, K.).
Used traditionally as a blood tonic; leaves have analgesic and antipyretic uses in some traditional medicine.
Young leaves and shoots are cooked as a nutritious vegetable, rich in protein, iron, and vitamins.
A fast-growing annual weed and semi-cultivated vegetable of farmland and gardens.