Description:

• Annual or perennial herbs or subshrubs, with Kranz anatomy
• Leaves alternate or opposite, simple, entire or almost so; stipules 0
• Inflorescence a dense head, a loose or dense spike-like thyrse, a spike, a raceme or a panicle, basically cymose, usually bracteate; bracts hyaline to membranous, stramineous to white, or coloured, subtending 1 or more flowers
• Flowers bisexual or unisexual, sometimes sterile, mostly regular, small or minute, with 2-5 bracteoles, frequently in ultimate 3-flowered cymules; lateral flowers of such cymules sometimes sterile and modified into scales, straight or hooked spines, bristles, wings or hairs which serve as dispersal mechanism
• Perianth uniseriate, membranous to firm and finally ± indurate, usually falling with ripe fruit included, with or without bracteoles at base
• Tepals (0)1-3(-5), free or connate below, glabrous to ± pilose or lanate, equal or unequal, imbricate, green to white or variously coloured
• Stamens 1-5, isomerous, opposite tepals, hypogynous, rarely perigynous; filaments frequently connate at base into a cup or tube, rarely free to base, some occasionally anantherous, sometimes alternating with variously shaped pseudostaminodes; anthers 1- or 2-thecous, dehiscing by 1 or 2 slits
• Ovary superior, 2- or 3(4)-carpellate, free or adnate to perianth, 1-locular; ovules 1-many, erect to pendulous, placentation basal; style obsolete to long and slender; stigmas capitate to long and filiform, 1(2-5)-fid
• Fruit an irregularly rupturing or circumscissile capsule, rarely a berry, usually with rather thin, membranous walls
• Seeds globular to lenticular or ovoid, rarely arillate; testa shiny; embryo curved or circular; perisperm ± copious, true endosperm scanty

Nomenclature:

• Amaranthaceae
  • Jussieu: 87 (1789)
  • Brown: 417 (1810), as Amarantaceae
  • Martius: 207 (1826)
  • Endlicher: 300 (1837)
  • Moquin-Tandon: 231 (1849)
  • Hooker: 20 (1880)
  • Gilg: 152 (1897)
  • Schinz: 91 (1893)
  • Cooke & Wright: 402 (1910)
  • Schinz: 7 (1934), as Amaranthaceae
  • Cronquist: (1981)
  • Townsend: 1 (1985)
  • Townsend: 28 (1988)
  • Townsend: 70 (1993a)
  • Townsend: 140 (1993b)

Distribution & Notes:

• Global: Genera ± 69; species over 1 000, predominantly tropical, occurring mainly in Africa and America
• Southern Africa: Genera 24, species 71
• Notes: Family includes several cosmopolitan weeds and a large number of xerophytic plants; some are important vegetable or grain crops, and some are grown as decoratives

References:

• BROWN, R. 1810. Amarantaceae Juss. Prodromus florae novae Hollandiae et Insulae van-Diemen 1. Johnson & Co., London
• COOKE, T. & WRIGHT, C.H. 1910. Amarantaceae. Flora capensis 5,1
• CRONQUIST, A. 1981. An integrated system of classification of flowering plants. Columbia University Press, New York
• ENDLICHER, S.L. 1837. Amarantaceae. Genera plantarum secundum ordines naturales disposita 1. Beck, Vienna
• GILG, E.F. 1897. Amarantaceae. Die natürlichen Pflanzenfamilien Nachtr. III,1a
• HOOKER, J.D. 1880. Amarantaceae. In G. Bentham & J.D. Hooker, Genera plantarum 3,1. Lovell Reeve & Co., London
• JUSSIEU, A.L. DE. 1789. Amaranthi, les Amarantes. Genera plantarum secundum ordines naturales disposita. Herissant & Barrois, Paris
• MARTIUS, C.F.P. von 1826. Beitrag zur Kenntnis der natürlichen Familie der Amarantaceen. Reprinted in Nova acta Academiae Caesareae Leopoldino Carolinae germanicae naturae curiosorum 13,1
• MOQUIN-TANDON, C.H.B.A. 1849. Amarantaceae. In A.P. de Candolle, Prodromus 13,2. Treuttel & Würtz, Paris
• SCHINZ, H. 1893. Amarantaceae. Die natürlichen Pflanzenfamilien III,1a
• SCHINZ, H. 1934. Amaranthaceae. Die natürlichen Pflanzenfamilien, edn 2, 16c
• TOWNSEND, C.C. 1985. Flora of tropical East Africa. Amaranthaceae
• TOWNSEND, C.C. 1988. Amaranthaceae. Flora zambesiaca 9,1
• TOWNSEND, C.C. 1993a. Amaranthaceae. Flora of Somalia 1
• TOWNSEND, C.C. 1993b. Amaranthaceae. In K. Kubitzki, J.G. Rohwer & V. Bittrich, The families and genera of vascular plants - dicotyledons 2. Springer-Verlag, Berlin

Resources:

• Classification of Amaranthaceae
• Key to Amaranthaceae genera

• Amaranthaceae genera: