Allmania nodiflora (PROSEA)

Plant Resources of South-East Asia Introduction

List of species

Allmania nodiflora (L.) R. Br. ex Wight

Family: Amaranthaceae

Synonyms

• Celosia nodiflora L.,
• Chamissoa nodiflora (L.) Mart.,
• Allmania pyramidalis Koord.

Distribution

Tropical Asia, from India to the Philippines, including western Malesia (e.g. throughout Indonesia).

Uses

Young plant parts are edible, being prepared like spinach.

Observations

• Annual herb, up to 80 cm tall with linear-spathulate, rather fleshy leaves, 1-6 cm × 0.5-2.5 cm, dull green with purple margins, sometimes short hairy below.
• Flowers bisexual, in initially globose heads (later more elongate) of 1-2 cm diameter, pale green or purplish-green.
• Fruit an utricle, ellipsoid, 3.5 mm long, containing a glossy black seed with a basal, bilobed, pale pink or brown aril.

Locally abundant as a weed on light, especially sandy soils, sandy shores, fields, roadsides and dunes, up to 100 m altitude. Propagation is by seed, but it is not cultivated. From India it is reported that it is a promising species for leaf protein production.

Selected sources

6, 7, 10, 85, 91.