Amaranthus torreyi

Torrey's amaranth, Torrey's Amaranth

Family: Amaranthaceae · Type: perennial · Native

Torrey's amaranth is a California native perennial found in the Mojave Desert on sandy flats and arroyos at elevations of 1,200 to 1,700 meters, often appearing after late-summer rain. Flowering from August to October, this plant produces green flowers clustered in leafy spikes. Growing with erect or ascending green stems 10 to 70 centimeters tall and many-branched, it develops distinctive oblanceolate to lanceolate leaves 15 to 50 millimeters long with narrowly wedge-shaped bases and acute tips. Its leaves have flat or slightly wavy margins, with petioles 10 to 30 millimeters long. The fruit is a small circumscissile capsule with a wrinkled lid, containing dark brown to black seeds that are smooth and shiny.

Habitat: Sandy flats, arroyos, after late-summer rain

Bloom period: Aug-Oct

Elevation: 1200-1700 m

Bioregions: DMoj

California counties: San Bernardino, Riverside, San Diego

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