Amaranthus watsonii

Watson's amaranth, Watson's amaranth, Watson's amaranth

Family: Amaranthaceae · Type: perennial · Native

Conservation status: CNPS 4.3

Watson's amaranth is a California native perennial found in southern California's San Gabriel Mountains and southern Colorado Desert in Imperial County, occurring on coastal dunes, beaches, sandy inland areas, and saline flats at elevations below 100 meters. Flowering from August to September, this plant produces small green flowers in dense, erect spikes 3 to 15 centimeters long. Growing with many-branched stems 10 to 100 centimeters tall that are glandular-hairy, particularly on the bracts, it has an upright and distinctive growth habit. Its leaves are ovate to oblong-elliptic, 10 to 80 millimeters long with wide wedge-shaped bases, featuring flat or slightly wavy margins. The fruit is a small, light-brown to brown circumscissile capsule containing shiny, red-black seeds.

Habitat: Coastal dunes, beaches, sandy inland areas, +- saline flats, disturbed areas after winter rain

Bloom period: Aug-Sep

Elevation: < 100 m

Bioregions: SnGb, s DSon (Imperial Co.)

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