Amaranthus tuberculatus var. rudis

Common waterhemp

Family: Amaranthaceae · Type: perennial · Not Native

Common waterhemp is a naturalized annual herb found in the Sacramento Valley and Southern California coastal areas in disturbed areas and agricultural fields at elevations below 250 meters. Flowering from July to October, this plant produces green to purple flowers in dense terminal spikes 3 to 15 centimeters long. Growing with erect or ascending stems 50 to 150 centimeters tall, it has green or purple branches that are mostly smooth. Its leaves are ovate to narrowly lanceolate, 15 to 150 millimeters long with flat margins and a narrow wedge-shaped base. The fruit is a small, wrinkled, green-brown to reddish capsule about 1.5 to 2 millimeters long that splits circumscissile to release tiny dark red-brown seeds.

Habitat: Disturbed areas, agricultural fields

Bloom period: Jul-Oct

Elevation: < 250 m

Bioregions: ScV, SCo

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