Amaranthus polygonoidesL.

tropical amaranth

WFO wfo-0000530422 Accepted WFO 2026-06 8 photographs CC BY

Plate 1 figs. a–h · 8 separate observations

Amaranthus polygonoides, photographed by Kevin Faccenda
fig. a Kevin Faccenda, CC BY 4.0 / 2021-01-06 / obs. 133306158
Amaranthus polygonoides, photographed by Cleveland Powell
fig. b Cleveland Powell, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 68641539
Amaranthus polygonoides, photographed by Sam Kieschnick
fig. c Sam Kieschnick, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 4089375
Amaranthus polygonoides, photographed by Sam Kieschnick
fig. d Sam Kieschnick, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 2628930
Amaranthus polygonoides, photographed by Sam Kieschnick
fig. e Sam Kieschnick, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 18035569
Amaranthus polygonoides, photographed by Sam Kieschnick
fig. f Sam Kieschnick, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 8844013
Amaranthus polygonoides, photographed by Sam Kieschnick
fig. g Sam Kieschnick, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 4986771
Amaranthus polygonoides, photographed by Sam Kieschnick
fig. h Sam Kieschnick, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 203600114

Every figure is a research-grade observation under CC0, CC BY or CC BY-SA, rehosted with the photographer’s name, the licence and the observation it came from. Photographs under a NonCommercial licence are excluded from this site and are never stored, which costs us a great many pictures and is not negotiable.

Native range 23 botanical countries

Regions where Amaranthus polygonoides is native: Florida, Mexico Gulf, Mexico Northeast, Mexico Northwest, Mexico Southeast, Mexico Southwest, New Mexico, South Carolina, Texas, Aruba, Bahamas, Belize, Cuba, Dominican Republic, Galápagos, Guatemala, Haiti, Honduras, Jamaica, Leeward Is., Netherlands Antilles, Puerto Rico, Windward Is. FloridaMexico GulfMexico NortheastMexico NorthwestMexico SoutheastMexico SouthwestNew MexicoSouth CarolinaTexasBelizeCubaDominican RepublicGuatemalaHaitiHondurasJamaicaPuerto Rico ArubaBahamasGalápagosLeeward Is.Netherlands AntillesWindward Is.
Native distribution of Amaranthus polygonoides, after Kew’s World Checklist of Vascular Plants. Introduced, extinct and doubtful records are excluded, so this is where the plant is from, not everywhere it now grows. Regions too small to draw at this scale are marked with a dot.
RegionTDWG codeContinent
Aruba ARU SOUTHERN AMERICA
Bahamas BAH
Belize BLZ
Cuba CUB
Dominican Republic DOM
Galápagos GAL
Guatemala GUA
Haiti HAI
Honduras HON
Jamaica JAM
Leeward Is. LEE
Netherlands Antilles NLA
Puerto Rico PUE
Windward Is. WIN
Florida FLA NORTHERN AMERICA
Mexico Gulf MXG
Mexico Northeast MXE
Mexico Northwest MXN
Mexico Southeast MXT
Mexico Southwest MXS
New Mexico NWM
South Carolina SCA
Texas TEX

Region boundaries approximated from Natural Earth (public domain) and mapped to TDWG World Geographical Scheme for Recording Plant Distributions (WGSRPD) level-3 botanical countries (Brummitt 2001). Indicative, not the official WGSRPD geometry.

Where it actually grows measured, from 884 observations

Condition 5th percentile Median 95th percentile
Coldest month, mean daily low 4.2 °C 6.9 °C 21.2 °C
Warmest month, mean daily high 26.8 °C 34.5 °C 35.7 °C
Annual rainfall 601 mm 833 mm 997 mm
Rainfall in the driest quarter 85 mm 147 mm 190 mm

It is barely found anywhere that freezes. This is not care advice and it is not a forecast. It is a measurement: we sampled the climate at every one of the 884 research-grade observations of Amaranthus polygonoides that carry a coordinate, and this is the range those places actually span. The 5th and 95th percentiles are used rather than the minimum and maximum, because a single cultivated specimen in a heated conservatory should not widen a tropical plant's range to the Arctic.

This is not a hardiness zone. A USDA zone is the average annual extreme minimum temperature. The figure above is the mean daily minimum of the coldest month, which is a different quantity and is typically far warmer. Reading one as the other would place a plant several zones too warm, so we do not publish a hardiness zone, because we do not have one.

Also published as 11 synonyms

A synonym is not an error. It is a record of botanists disagreeing, in print, about where this plant belongs. Each of these was somebody’s considered answer.

  • Albersia polygonoides (L.) Kunth
  • Amaranthus berlandieri Uline & W.L.Bray
  • Amaranthus polygonoides subsp. berlandieri (Moq.) Thell.
  • Amaranthus taishanensis F.Z.Li & C.K.Ni
  • Amaranthus verticillatus Pav. ex Moq.
  • Amblogyna polygonoides (L.) Raf.
  • Euxolus polygonoides Nakai
  • Glomeraria polygonoides (L.) Cav.
  • Roemeria polygonoides (L.) Moench
  • Sarratia berlandieri Moq.
  • Sarratia polygonoides (L.) Moq.

Sourcesevery claim on this page

  1. World Flora Online Plant List. accepted name, authority, classification. CC0. Retrieved 2026-07-12.
  2. iNaturalist. photographs and flowering annotations, CC0 / CC BY / CC BY-SA only. per photograph. Retrieved 2026-06-27.
  3. Wikidata. common name (P1843), joined on the World Flora Online identifier (P7715). CC0. Retrieved 2026-07-13.
  4. Kew, World Checklist of Vascular Plants (WCVP v16). native distribution by TDWG level-3 botanical country, and life form. CC BY 3.0. Retrieved 2026-06-04.

We publish what we can source and we say so when we cannot. This page has no care advice and no toxicity claim, because we do not yet have those from a source we can cite.