Common name: Prickly Amaranth, Edlebur, Needle burr, Spiny amaranth, Thorny amaranth • Hindi: Kanta chaulai • Manipuri: চেংগ্ক্রুক Chengkruk • Marathi: कांटेभाजी kante bhaji, कांटेमाठ kante math • Tamil: முள்ளுக்கீரை mullukkeerai • Malayalam: Kattumullenkeera • Telugu: ముళ్లతోటకూర mullatotakura • Kannada: Mulluharive soppu • Bengali: Kantanotya • Sanskrit: Tanduliuyah
Botanical name: Amaranthus spinosus Family: Amaranthaceae (Amaranth family)
Prickly Amaranth is an annual herb with sometimes red tinged erect stems,
sometimes ascending, 30-150 cm long, usually branched. Leaves ovate to
rhombic-ovate, elliptic, lanceolate-oblong, or lanceolate, blades 1-12 cm
long, 0.89-6 cm wide, smooth, leaft stalk 1-9 cm long. Flowers green, in
axillary clusters in the lower part of the plant and in unbranched or
branched spikes in the upper part, the lower clusters entirely without
stamens as are the lower flowers of the spikes, the upper flowers in the
spikes staminate.
| Photographed in Vaghbil, Thane, Maharashtra. |
Identification credit: Dinesh Valke
|
ative