Amaranth

Amaranth has been cultivated as a leafy vegetable, pseudo-grain (technically a seed), and ornamental plant for over 9,000 years in the Americas and is widely grown and consumed in Africa, Asia and the Caribbean. The genus Amaranthus has close to 70 species, distributed around the world in tropical, arid and temperate zones. The wide dispersal of this plant has sustained people on both sides of the Atlantic, forming an integral part of diasporic foodways and precolonial diets.

The Amaranth genus has a rich genetic diversity and is easy naturally hybridized in the wild, making it hard to specifically track down all the species that exist under this genus. Various theories exist about the specific point of origin for grain amaranth species.