Amaranthus is a cosmopolitan genus of annual or short-lived perennial plants collectively known as amaranths. Some amaranth species are cultivated as leaf vegetables, pseudocereals, and ornamental plants. Most of the Amaranthus species are summer annual weeds and are commonly referred to as pigweeds.
Amaranth, (genus Amaranthus), the genus of 60–70 species of flowering plants in the family Amaranthaceae, is distributed nearly worldwide. Several amaranth species are useful as food crops and are grown both for their leaves and for their edible seeds, which are nutritious pseudocereal (nongrass seeds used like cereal grains). A number of species, including love-lies-bleeding (Amaranthus caudatus), prince's feather (A. hypochondriacus), and Joseph’s coat (A. tricolor), are common garden ornamentals. Several species are considered weeds.
