Its leaves taste like spinach, its seeds are a nutritious cereal grain substitute, and its flowers serve as a bold accent in the annual garden bed.

Yet it nearly became extinct half a millennium ago. This plant was one of the three pillars of the Aztec diet, along with corn and beans, but its seeds were also made into a dough that was shaped into likenesses of Aztec gods. The missionizing Spanish, upon witnessing the baking and eating of the idolatrous figurines, made haste to destroy every field they could find of the plant used to make the dough.

For several hundred years, cultivation of this plant for culinary purposes ceased in the Americas. Here and there, in Europe, it was grown as a garden curiosity. Only recently, where new crops have been sought that can subsist in harsh conditions, was this plant rediscovered as a food source. It is currently being evaluated as a staple crop for extensive cultivation in both tropical and desert areas throughout the world.

The plant to which I refer is Amaranthus (a = not; maranthus = dying or fading), a reference to the everlasting quality of its flowers, which persist for a year or longer in dry arrangements. Amaranthus, although an annual, can withstand the entire spectrum of spring and summer growing conditions and is found thriving in gardens in all 50 states.

There are many ornamental Amaranthus species. The most prominent ones have footlong, blood-red, purple, pink or yellow woolly inflorescences that stand at the top of leafy stems that can grow six feet tall or more. Love-lies-bleeding (Amaranthus caudatus) is distinguished by drooping flower tassels, as opposed to the vertical types.

The taste of Amaranthus leaves will remind you very much of spinach, except they have three times the iron found in Popeye’s favorite food. Amaranthus seeds can be roasted, upon which they inflate, popcorn style. Milled seeds are turned into flat or puffy bread, high in protein and rich in calcium and iron.

A most attractive aspect of Amaranthus, whether you are a subsistence farmer or gardener, is its ease of cultivation. Just broadcast seeds over bare ground in late winter or early spring and you will see them germinate within two weeks. They will grow quickly enough into flowering plants and bloom nonstop into the fall. Do not pick all the flowers for your arrangements. Let some go to seed and you will be rewarded the following spring with a self-sown crop of new plants.

Amaranthus tricolor is another edible species, native to Southeast Aisa, that has the bonus of variegated foliage, symmetrically patterned in scarlet and gold.

Quinoa (KEEN-waa) was to the Incas of South America what amaranth was to the Aztecs. It is also in the amaranth family and is similarly easy to grow, although it does best in scorching hot summer weather and is currently being grown commercially in the Imperial Valley. Its seeds are highly nutritious and it has become a lucrative crop to grow with the advantage that it requires a bare minimum of water.

Amaranthus culture provides insight into the proper care of Celosia, an Amaranthus relative and one of the most irresistible annual flowers. Celosia is that gorgeous gem with red, purple, pink, orange or yellow flowers that are shaped like miniature plumes or as fascinated cockscombs.

No plant is more tempting in the nursery and no plant fails more regularly and miserably in the garden than Celosia. The reason for its quick garden demise is overwatering. In the manner of Amaranthus species previously mentioned, it should be watered judiciously, never soaked more than once a week.

But now imagine an annual celosia that grows with weed-like abandon, yet its multitude of flowers can last for months in dry arrangements. Flowers are violet-purple and bloom from spring through fall. Leaves are lanceolate (lance-shaped) and bronzish burgundy in color. The plant grows quickly to six feet, can serve as an informal hedge, and may be grown indoors. And if all that were not enough of a recommendation, it self-sows, too, so you will always have seedlings coming along.

The plant in question goes by the name of wheat celosia, a reference to the feel of its flowers. Its botanical name of Celosia spicata means spiky celosia, indicating once again its floral texture. Don’t be tempted to spoil wheat celosia with an abundance of water, which will promptly kill it. If you want to save money on your wheat celosia investment, plant it from seed, which is available through Internet vendors.

Another celosia typically raised from seed is flamingo feather (Celosia argentea var. plumosa). It is a highly robust species with wine-colored foliage and fire engine red flowers. You will be impressed with its long flowering season and minimal water requirement. It sends up six- to eight-inch plumes that stay in bloom for months.

Tumbleweed (Kali tragus) is an amaranth that proliferated like a vegetative plague soon after arriving in this country. Emblematic of the wide-open and desolate Western frontier, tumbleweed is actually native to Russia. In the 1870s, bags of flaxseed that were shipped from Russia to South Dakota contained tumbleweed seeds and, soon enough, tumbleweeds were doing somersaults all the way to California. Once it dies, tumbleweed is detached from the ground and is transported long distances by the wind, dropping its seeds as it goes. By 1890, tumbleweed covered 35,000 square miles of what was formerly pristine American wilderness.

Recently, I spotted a tough member of the amaranth family blooming gleefully in mid-winter. It’s known as Brazilian joyweed (Alternanthera brasiliana) and it does spread as a gleeful ground cover, rising up to a height of two feet or so, and blooming throughout the year. Foliage is deep burgundy in color, contrasting nicely with its tiny ball-shaped white flowers. It is easily propagated from four- to six-inch shoot terminal cuttings.

Globe amaranth (Gomphrena  ‘Fireworks’) is slowly becoming a garden staple. It grows into a 4-foot-tall-by-4-foot-wide mass of lime-green foliage covered with purple flowers, whose glowing yellow tips impart a pyrotechnic aspect. Flowers have a wafer-like texture and last for many months in dry flower arrangement.

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Two vegetables in the amaranth family, beets and Swiss chard, are among the easiest to grow. It’s a curious experience planting them from seed since, with both vegetables, multiple seedlings emerge from a single seed. Most gardeners remove all but the most robust of each seedling group but, where soil is especially rich, you have the option of just letting things go, with the knowledge that your beets will be smaller than were they thinned.

Some gardeners find the green leafy growth on top of their beets quite flavorful, nearly as delicious as the beets themselves, so you might want to do a taste test on your homegrown beet greens and see for yourself. Swiss chard is not only good in your salad but ornamental, too, with maroon leaf and gold and pink stem varieties available.

A discussion of the Amaranth family would not be complete without the mention of two uninvited garden guests: pigweed (Amaranthus spp.) and lambsquarters (Chenopodium album). You can take solace from the fact that their foliage is edible with a taste resembling that of spinach, their botanical cousin.

Tip of the Week: There is a plant with flowers whose texture matches that of the Amaranthus species mentioned above. Dwarf chenille plant or firetail (Acalypha pendula) is clad with red caterpillar catkins that hang down in profusion from the stems of an otherwise modest plant that only reaches one foot in height. Typically found at the nursery in a hanging basket, it may be planted in flower beds as well. California copperleaf (Acalypha hispida), native to Southern California, is a chenille plant relative with its own fuzzy caterpillar floral display. It grows up to three feet tall and its complimentary inch-long leaves, the same length as its flowers, are tinged red.

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