Amaranthus caudatus

Love-lies-bleeding, foxtail amaranth, quilete, Quilete

Family: Amaranthaceae · Type: perennial · Not Native

Love-lies-bleeding is a naturalized annual herb found in southern San Joaquin Valley and Southern California coastal areas in disturbed areas at elevations below 200 meters. Flowering from July to October, this plant produces drooping panicles of small flowers in rich red, purple, and white colors. Growing with erect branched stems 30 to 200 centimeters tall that are reddish-purple and moderately hairy toward the tips, it develops impressive cascading flower clusters. Its rhombic-ovate leaves are 25 to 150 millimeters long with wedge-shaped bases and slightly wavy margins, providing an attractive backdrop to the dramatic hanging flower spikes. The fruit is a small circumscissile capsule approximately 1.5 to 2.5 millimeters long, containing seeds that range from white to dark reddish-black.

Habitat: Disturbed areas

Bloom period: Jul-Oct

Elevation: < 200 m

Bioregions: s ScV, SCo, expected elsewhere

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