Green Amaranth (A. Viridus)

Food and medicine can be found right under our noses in our gardens if we only take the time to identify some weeds.

Recently I had to relocate my vegetable and herb garden to make room to build our house. It was a huge task but thanks to my husband’s help everything was transplanted beautifully apart from several small rhubarb plants.

They failed to grow but in their place a very healthy crop of green amaranth (A. viridus) sprang up. My husband almost pulled them out because he thought they were weeds. Thankfully he checked with me first (as he has learned to do over the years!).

We may not have all of the rhubarb plants from the original garden but in their place we have a plentiful supply of a green pot herb that is also a medicinal herb.

Other edible amaranths include A. caudatus, a. cruentus, a. lividus, and A. powelli. The young stems of these amaranths can be boiled or steamed as a vegetable and while tender they lack fibre. Green amaranth leaves are an excellent substitute for spinach and can successfully replace it in most dishes. They can also be added to salads, stews, soups, and casseroles. Apart from the plant’s use as a vegetable or pot herb, the clusters of nutty edible seeds are certainly worth eating as a raw snack or added to biscuits to give them a mild flavour and crunch. The seeds can be easily harvested by scraping the ripe (reddish-brown) spikes and boiled in a little water to make a simple but healthy porridge.

As for green amaranth’s medicinal properties, the leaves are emollient and have traditionally been used to treat scorpion sting and snake bite, tumours, and to help rid the body of intestinal worms. Many cultures have different uses for the plant but they are not well documented. However, the leaves can be used as a poultice to treat bruises, boils, and wounds.

Weeds can be a nuisance but those I’ve identified have mostly been beneficial to man and animals and well worth allowing to grow in my garden, which isn’t difficult to do if they are kept in control.

A Rose and an Amaranth blossomed side by side in a garden,

and the Amaranth said to her neighbour,

“How I envy you your beauty and your sweet scent!

No wonder you are such a universal favourite.”

But the Rose replied with a shade of sadness in her voice,

“Ah, my dear friend, I bloom but for a time:

my petals soon wither and fall, and then I die.

But your flowers never fade, even if they are cut;

for they are everlasting.”

Aesop’s Fables