In season through

Native range:

Often disparaged a weed, our wild amaranth is a native spinach relative that thrives in heat, drought and human-altered landscapes.

Like quelites, amaranth leaves can be eaten raw, but are best cooked in quantity. The work in everything you might add spinach to. One of my favorite recipes is a variant on kale chips: ensure that leaves are dry, then quickly fry them until crispy and add a pinch of salt or Tajin for a crunchy snack!

Amaranth can accumulate nitrates. Don't harvest if artificial fertilizers have been used.

The amaranth and spinach family many of our local wild foods: Quelites, Tumbleweed, and Kochia. Amaranth and the latter two share the adaption of C4 photosynthesis, a unique carbon fixation pathway that enables them to thrive at high temperatures and with little water, growing quickly during our summer monsoon season.

Our native species has separate male and female plants. Only males produce allergenic pollen, however females get prickly as they mature.