Amaranth

Family: Amaranthaceae. About 90 species are known, distributed in the tropical and subtropical regions of the Americas, Africa, and Asia.

Annual, less often perennial herbaceous plants with robust, erect, branched, succulent stems up to 150 cm tall. Leaves petiolate, large, ovate or elongated, green, purple-green or tricolored. Leaves alternate. Flowers very small, gathered in complex spike-like inflorescences, erect or nodding. Fruit a rounded capsule. There are 1500-2000 rounded dark brown seeds in 1 g, whose viability is retained up to 5 years. The main species and forms cultivated since the late 16th century may be classified as ornamental-flowering or decorative-leaved.

Few plants have as ancient and dramatic a history of cultivation as amaranth.

The indigenous peoples of South America began cultivating foxtail amaranth (Amaranthus caudatus) 8,000 years ago, and until the arrival of Europeans it was the second most important grain crop (after maize). Amaranth products were part of the Aztec and Inca diets for many centuries and millennia. The last Aztec emperor Montezuma annually received from his subjects in 20 provinces a tribute of 70,000 hectoliters of amaranth seeds. Moreover, the Incas and Aztecs revered amaranth not only as a food crop but also as a medicinal and sacred plant. The cult of amaranth included special rituals and even human sacrifices. Festivals were held in honor of amaranth. Thus, in Mexico during celebrations dedicated to amaranth, huge figures of gods were made from amaranth flour; then the figures were broken apart and distributed to participants, who ate them immediately. Spanish conquerors banned the cultivation of amaranth, and for four centuries it was forgotten in the main territory; only in the most inaccessible areas of Mexico and in the Andes was it still cultivated on small plots. Only from the end of the last century was amaranth remembered once again.

Foxtail amaranth became most widespread in the mountainous regions of India and Nepal, where during special festivals its grains, prepared like puffed corn and soaked in milk, are the only permitted food.

Location: light-, moisture- and warmth-loving, fast-growing plants that do not tolerate frost.

Soil: preferring light, fertile soils with sufficient lime content. Poorly tolerant of waterlogging and high soil acidity.

Care: Two weeks after planting, it is advisable to feed the seedlings with a complete complex fertilizer or a solution of cow manure. Amaranth is drought-tolerant. Watering is required only during seedling establishment and during prolonged drought.

Propagation: By seeds, sown in mid-May directly into open ground in their permanent place, with subsequent thinning to 35-50 cm between plants, or in April in a cold frame, where seedlings emerge in 4-5 days (in the open ground in 12-20 days). Amaranth seeds are sown shallowly - to 3 cm, and the soil surface should be carefully leveled. Seeds do not germinate at soil temperatures below 14°. After the first pricking-out of the seedlings, plants are transplanted into individual peat-compost pots in the warm frame, from which they are planted out to their permanent place. Amaranths produce seed well; however, varieties, being cross-pollinators, hybridize heavily with each other and with wild species. In addition, these plants may self-seed, often producing plants of low varietal quality, especially in southern regions. This should be taken into account when producing amaranth seed.