Amaranthus hybridus

Smooth pigweed, green amaranth, Green Amaranth

Family: Amaranthaceae · Type: perennial · Not Native

Smooth pigweed is a naturalized annual found in the Central Valley, Central Western, and Southwestern California bioregions in disturbed areas and agricultural fields at elevations below 300 meters. Flowering from June to November, this plant produces green to olive green flowers in panicle-like terminal clusters with thin, flexible branches. Growing with erect stems 30 to 120 centimeters tall, it has a branching habit with green stems that become hairy toward the top. Its rhombic-ovate leaves are 50 to 120 millimeters long with wedge-shaped bases and acute tips, arranged with broad blades 20 to 60 millimeters wide. The fruit is a small circumscissile capsule 1.5 to 2.2 millimeters long, containing shiny brown to black seeds.

Habitat: Disturbed areas, agricultural fields

Bloom period: Jun-Nov

Elevation: < 300 m

Bioregions: GV, CW, SW

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