Prickly blaze ...

Botanical name: Amaranthus spinosus

Prickly Amaranth is an annual herb with sometimes red tinged erect stems, sometimes ascending, 30-150 cm long, usually branched. Leaves ovate to rhombic-ovate, elliptic, lanceolate-oblong, or lanceolate, blades 1-12 cm long, 0.89-6 cm wide, smooth, leaft stalk 1-9 cm long. Flowers green, in axillary clusters in the lower part of the plant and in unbranched or branched spikes in the upper part, the lower clusters entirely without stamens as are the lower flowers of the spikes, the upper flowers in the spikes staminate. This is the plant growing in a cement pot in my home garden. As it grew wild i did not want it to be destroyed seeing its luxurious growth. I took the photograph on 26th June, 2012.