Minute Amaranth is an annual herb 10-45 cm high,
mostly branching from the base. Leaves are opposite or alternate,
elliptic-oblong or ovate, 1-5 cm long for basal leaves, becoming
shorter and narrower further up, thinly hairy to more or less hairless,
more or less gradually tapering into a leaf-stalk up to about half the
length of the leaf blade. Flowers are borne in small, dense spikes,
3-15 mm long, clustered in the leaf axils or on short in leaf-axils
shoots. Bracts are whitish, hyaline, up to half a mm long. Flowers have
ovate-elliptic tepals about 1.25 mm long, greenish-white, woolly on the
outside. Capsule is included in the persistent flower and falling
together. Minute Amaranth is native to India, Sri Lanka, Southeast
Asia, and eastern Africa. Flowering: November-January.
Medicinal uses: Used in Ayurveda for treatment
of skin disease, stomach ache, astringent and antiseptic.
Identification credit: S. Kasim
Photographed in Trichirapally, Tamil Nadu.
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The flower labeled Minute Amaranth is ...