* Strawberry Fields globe amaranth, a garden flower

Although amaranth was cultivated on a large scale in ancient Mexico, Guatemala, and Peru, nowadays it is only cultivated on a small scale there, along with India, China, Nepal, and other tropical countries ; thus, there is potential for further cultivation in those countries, as well as in the U. S. In a 1977 article in Science, amaranth was described as " the crop of the future.

Compared to other grains, amaranth is unusually rich in the essential amino acid lysine Common grains such as wheat and corn are comparatively rich in amino acids that amaranth lacks ; thus, amaranth and other grains can complement each other.

The ultimate root of " amaranth " is the Greek ( amarantos ), " unfading ," with the Greek word for " flower ," ἄνθος ( anthos ), factoring into the word's development as " amaranth.

* Amaranthus caudatus – love-lies-bleeding, pendant amaranth, tassel flower, quilete

The current spelling, amaranth, seems to have come from folk etymology that assumed the final syllable derived from the Greek word anthos (" flower "), common in botanical names.

When a blood hunt was to be declared, it was customary to send the victim a flower of amaranth a week in advance.

In North America, these include the shoots of common milkweed, Solomon's seal, wood sorrel ( usually eaten with the leaves ), blackberry and raspberry ( peeled ), chickweeds, galinsoga, common purslane, Japanese knotweed, saxifrage, cleavers, wild leeks, wild onion, nodding onion, field garlic, wild garlic, winter cress and other wild mustards, thistles ( de-thorned ), stinging nettles and wood nettles ( cooked ), burdock, bellworts, jewelweed, spiderwort, violets, carrion flower, twisted-stalk, amaranth, pine and slippery elm, among many others.

Amaranthus, collectively known as amaranth, is a cosmopolitan genus of annual or short-lived perennial plants.

* Amaranthus acutilobus – sharp-lobe amaranth ; is a synonym of Amaranthus viridis

In cooked and edible forms, amaranth is competitive with wheat germ and oats-higher in some nutrients, lower in others.

Kiwicha, as amaranth is known today in the Andes, was one of the staple foodstuffs of the Incas.

In Indonesia and Malaysia, leaf amaranth is called bayam, while the Tagalogs in the Philippines call the plant kilitis or " kulitis ".

The root of mature amaranth is a popular vegetable.

In East Africa, amaranth leaf is known in chewa as bonongwe, and in Swahili as mchicha, as terere in Kikuyu, Meru and Embu ; and as telele in Kamba.

In Greece, green amaranth ( Amaranthus viridis ) is a popular dish and is called vlita or vleeta.

There is also a synthetic dye that has been named " amaranth " for its similarity in color to the natural amaranth pigments known as betalains.

Palmer amaranth is among the " top five most troublesome weeds " in the southeast of the United States and has already evolved resistances to dinitroanilines and acetolactate synthase inhibitors.

* Amaranth flour is a flour produced from ground amaranth grain.

" A milpa is a field, usually but not always recently cleared, in which farmers plant a dozen crops at once including maize, avocados, multiple varieties of squash and bean, melon, tomatoes, chilis, sweet potato, jícama, amaranth, and mucana .... Milpa crops are nutritionally and environmentally complementary.

Corn is able to pop because, like amaranth grain, sorghum, quinoa and millet, its kernels have a hard moisture-sealed hull and a dense starchy interior.

To this day, amaranth grains are toasted much like popcorn and mixed with honey, molasses or chocolate to make a treat called alegría, meaning " joy " in Spanish.

To determine palatability, different levels of amaranth grain flour were mixed with the wheat flour and baking ingredients ( 1 % salt, 2. 5 % fat, 1. 5 % yeast, 10 % sugar and 52 – 74 % water ), fermented, molded, pan-proved and baked.

The amaranth containing products were then compared with bread made from 100 % wheat flour.

The loaf volume decreased by 40 % and the moisture content increased from 22 to 42 % with increase in amaranth grain flour.

The study found that the sensory scores of the taste, odor color and texture decreased with increasing amounts of amaranth.

In the Latin Rite of the Catholic Church, the choir dress of a bishop includes the purple cassock with amaranth trim, rochet, purple zucchetto ( skull cap ), purple biretta, and pectoral cross.

Her headdress consisted of several broad bands that in all probability were made of cotton and trimmed with amaranth seeds.

Vendors sell street food such as ice cream, homemade fruit drinks, esquites ( flavored corn kernels ) and corn-on-the-cob served with mayonnaise, lime, chili pepper and grated cheese, amaranth bars, and various candies.

Coloured piping and buttons are added in accordance with rank: purple for chaplains of His Holiness ; amaranth red for bishops, protonotaries apostolic and Honorary Prelates ; and scarlet red for cardinals.

Alvaro del Portillo, Opus Dei Personal prelature | Prelate, wearing a black cassock with shoulder cape piped in Amaranth ( color ) | amaranth, a purple fascia ( vestment ) | fascia and a gold or gilt pectoral cross.

Generic coat of arms of a Protonotary Apostolic: amaranth ( color ) | amaranth galero with 12 scarlet tassels.

Generic coat of arms of an Honorary Prelate: amaranth galero with 12 violet tassels.

Other Cameron's interiors include the Waiters ' Room, with the inlaid floor of rosewood, amaranth and mahogany and stylish Chippendale card-tables ; the Blue Formal Dining-Room, with white-and-blue silk wallpapers and Carrara marble chimneys ; the Chinese Blue Drawing Room, a curious combination of Adam style with the Chinoiserie ; the Choir Anteroom, with walls lined in apricot-colored silk ; and the columned boudoir of Alexander I, executed in the Pompeian style.

* Picture with summer-camauro in amaranth red silk, white camauro in silk-damask worn during the Octave of Easter and winter-camauro in red velvet

Several species are raised for amaranth " grain " in Asia and the Americas.

Ancient amaranth grains still used to this day include the three species, Amaranthus caudatus, Amaranthus cruentus, and Amaranthus hypochondriacus.

As befits its weedy life history, amaranth grains grow very rapidly and their large seedheads can weigh up to 1 kilogram and contain a half-million seeds in three species of amaranth.

Another important use of amaranth throughout Mesoamerica was to prepare ritual drinks and foods.

( Real hummingbirds feed on amaranth flowers.

They fasted or ate very little ; a statue of the god was made out of amaranth ( huautli ) seeds and honey, and at the end of the month, it was cut into small pieces so everybody could eat a little piece of the god.

After the Spanish conquest, cultivation of amaranth was outlawed, while some of the festivities were subsumed into the Christmas celebration.

Because of its importance as a symbol of indigenous culture, its gluten-free palatability, easy to cook, and its protein particularly well suited to human nutritional needs, interest in grain amaranth ( especially A. cruentus and A. hypochondriacus ) revived in the 1970s.