Amaranthus arenicola

Sand amaranth, Sand Amaranth

Family: Amaranthaceae · Type: perennial · Not Native

Sand amaranth is a naturalized plant found in southern California coastal areas, Santa Clara Valley, and southern California in sandy soils at elevations below 200 meters. Flowering from August to September, this plant produces green-white flowers in erect to nodding spike-like clusters. Growing with extensively branched stems 10 to 100 centimeters tall, it develops narrow-ovate to elliptic leaves 15 to 75 millimeters long with wedge-shaped bases and flat to wavy margins. Its leaves have distinctive petioles 10 to 70 millimeters long, creating a delicate, multi-branched appearance. The fruit is small, approximately 2 millimeters wide, with a circumscissile opening and smooth, brown seed.

Habitat: Sandy soils

Bloom period: Aug-Sep

Elevation: < 200 m

Bioregions: ScV, CCo, SCo

Data from The California Species Project — 14,000+ California species with verified data from CNPS, CDFW, USFWS, Jepson eFlora, Cal-IPC, and more.