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Amaranthus polygonoides; photograph (c) Linda Jo Conn, some rights reserved (CC BY) CC BY(c) Linda Jo Conn, some rights reserved (CC BY) · observed growing wild · 2026-09-20

Amaranthus polygonoides L.

Tropical amaranth; White Polly; Smartweed amaranth

Amaranthaceae · New Mexico, Texas +21

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Amaranthus polygonoides, photograph (c) Linda Jo Conn, some rights reserved (CC BY)Amaranthus polygonoides, photograph (c) Linda Jo Conn, some rights reserved (CC BY)Amaranthus polygonoides, photograph (c) Linda Jo Conn, some rights reserved (CC BY)Amaranthus polygonoides, photograph (c) Linda Jo Conn, some rights reserved (CC BY)Amaranthus polygonoides, photograph author not stated, no rights reservedAmaranthus polygonoides, photograph (c) Michelle W. （鍾偉瑋）, some rights reserved (CC BY) 56 photographs ›
Habitat figures
Cold floor (1 night in 100)
-3.2°C
Record low -12.4 °C in 44 years, at a typical spot in the range NASA POWER
Warmest month, mean daily high
34°C
Jul and Aug at the habitat CHELSA
Rain a year (median across the range)
859mm
12 months of 25 mm or more in the median year CHELSA
Open-sky light
18–43DLI
Lowest to highest month (DLI) CHELSA
The year in your months, northern hemisphere
  1. Jan
  2. Feb
  3. Mar
  4. Apr
  5. May
  6. Jun
  7. Jul
  8. Aug
  9. Sep
  10. Oct
  11. Nov
  12. Dec
Rain spread: 70% of the median year's rain takes 8 months, so no short rainy season. rain rule, CHELSA
Northern hemisphere unless you set your site. The chart is in the habitat's months.

Summary

Amaranthus polygonoides is a species of flowering plant in the family Amaranthaceae. It is an annual native to Mexico, northern Central America, the Caribbean, the Galápagos, and portions of the south-central and southeastern United States. It goes by the common name of tropical amaranth.

Quoted from Wikipedia, "Amaranthus polygonoides", CC BY-SA 4.0.

Cultivation

Seasons

The rain rule reads no short rainy season: 70% of the median year's rain (636 mm of 837 mm) takes 8 months, March to July and September to November. Mean temperature moves 18.3 °C between the warmest and coldest month. Months are the habitat's, northern hemisphere; shifted six months for a southern-hemisphere collection: September to January and March to May.

Rain

837 mm in the median year at the habitat, 636 mm of it March to July and September to November. Wettest month June at 109 mm, driest month January at 48 mm. Across the grid cells of the range the year's total runs 599 mm to 1,058 mm, the 10th to 90th percentile of each cell's own year. The median of the cells' own yearly totals, 859 mm, is the year's rain at the top of the page; the 837 mm here is the median year's, the twelve monthly medians added, which the rain rule reads. Habitat calendar, northern hemisphere; median year across the grid cells of the range, CHELSA.

Light

Open sky over the habitat: 18 to 43 mol/m²/day across the year (daily light integral, median year across the grid cells of the range, CHELSA; the lowest 10th-percentile month across the cells is 17, the highest 90th-percentile month 44).

Warmth and air
Temperature

Coldest: the 1st-percentile night over 44 years at a typical spot in the range is -3.2 °C, the absolute minimum -12.4 °C, 542 frost nights in 44 years, 12.3 a year (NASA POWER daily minima). Warmest: the 99th-percentile day is 41.1 °C. Monthly means: the coldest month's mean nightly low 6.8 °C in January (across the grid cells of the range 4.5 °C to 14.7 °C), the warmest month's mean daily high 34.4 °C in August (median year across the grid cells of the range, CHELSA). Cold floor: -3.2 °C, which is the 1st-percentile night over 44 years at a typical spot in the range (NASA POWER).

Humidity

Relative humidity at the habitat: 56 to 60% across the year (monthly means, median year across the grid cells of the range, CHELSA). A figure about the air, saying nothing about how the plant takes water.

How this section is made

Each card states this species' habitat figures with their sources, and what two fixed rules read from them; nothing here says what the plant does, wants or tolerates. The rules · the terms.

Seasons. Read from the median year of CHELSA monthly rainfall and mean temperature across the grid cells of the range: the rain rule takes the smallest set of months carrying 70% of the rain and calls it winter when its mean is more than half a degree below the year's, summer when more than that above, and neither in between; the temperature rule, used only under 120 mm, names the cooler six months when they are at least a degree cooler than the other six. Months are shifted for the other hemisphere only where the temperature curve moves 4 °C or more and the habitat lies 10° or more from the equator. A reading of the curves, not an observation of the plant.

Rain. CHELSA monthly precipitation, median year across the grid cells of the range. The rain that falls where the species is recorded; nothing about how the plant takes water.

Light. CHELSA shortwave radiation at each envelope cell, a daily-mean flux taken to a daily total and converted at 2.07 mol of PAR per MJ. The sky over the habitat, measured; what reaches a plant under a rock, a shrub or a shade cloth is not.

Temperature. NASA POWER daily minima and maxima over 44 years at a typical spot in the range, lapse-corrected -62 m to its elevation; CHELSA monthly means, median year across the grid cells of the range. The cold floor is the 1st-percentile night named in its sentence. Not a measured survival limit for any plant in a pot.

Humidity. CHELSA relative humidity, median year across the grid cells of the range.

Climate across the habitat

Habitat months, northern hemisphere

Habitat climate of Amaranthus polygonoides through the yearWarmest months July and August, mean daily high 34 °C; coldest month January, mean nightly low 6.8 °C; 837 mm of rain in the median year (the twelve monthly medians added). Medians across the range, from CHELSA; the extremes at the edge from NASA POWER. Habitat months, northern hemisphere.-20°-10°0°10°20°30°40°50°frost41.1° 99th-percentile day, NASA POWER-12.4° lowest night in 44 years, NASA POWER°C · day and nightcold quarter0255075100125150mm rainDLI 18–43RH 56–60%JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
day night rain medians and 10th–90th percentile across 364 habitat cells, CHELSA cold quarter: the three months around the coldest month's mean nightly low extremes over 44 years at a typical spot in the range, from NASA POWER, marked at the edge, in no month DLI, mol/m²/dayRH %each on its own scale
Figures by month
JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
Day °C17 / 16–2419 / 18–2523 / 21–2827 / 25–3130 / 28–3332 / 30–3434 / 31–3534 / 31–3531 / 29–3327 / 26–2922 / 20–2718 / 16–25
Night °C7 / 5–158 / 6–1612 / 10–1815 / 14–2020 / 18–2323 / 21–2524 / 22–2524 / 23–2622 / 20–2417 / 15–2212 / 10–188 / 6–16
Rain mm48 / 28–6349 / 25–6662 / 21–8360 / 33–7594 / 58–117109 / 66–12867 / 51–11254 / 47–11681 / 72–144102 / 63–12361 / 26–8250 / 25–75
DLI19 / 19–2623 / 23–3129 / 29–3835 / 35–4238 / 37–4241 / 40–4343 / 41–4441 / 39–4134 / 33–3427 / 26–3120 / 20–2718 / 17–24
RH %58 / 56–6058 / 56–6057 / 55–5957 / 54–6060 / 57–6259 / 57–6358 / 55–6356 / 53–6457 / 55–6358 / 56–6258 / 56–6058 / 56–60
How this section is made
Each figure is the median across the 364 grid cells on land that hold in-range records (740 records in those cells; 4 more cells hold records but no land by the elevation layer, so those records sit at sea and the cells are left out), with the 10th–90th percentile span across those cells after the slash where it differs. A dash is a month one or more of those cells has no figure for in the grid (a variable CHELSA does not carry there), so no median is taken rather than one over fewer cells. Extremes and elevation were read at a typical spot in the range, cell 1209:1630 (29.525, -98.475). Over 44 years there: absolute minimum -12.4 °C, 1st-percentile night -3.2 °C, 99th-percentile day 41.1 °C. Normals: CHELSA V2.1 1981–2010 climatology, 0.05° cells (each the mean of ~36 1 km pixels). Across the range: median and 10th–90th percentile of each month across the 364 distinct grid cells holding 740 of the 744 in-range records (4 further cells with records at sea, by the elevation layer, left out); extremes and elevation at the typical cell 1209:1630 (its coldest month's mean nightly low nearest the median across cells); its position is the cell centre. Extremes: NASA POWER (MERRA-2) daily 1981–2024, cell 29.50_-98.750, lapse-corrected -62 m at 6.5 °C/km. Elevation: ETOPO 2022, 240 m (cell mean).

Natural habitat

Native range as published by WCVP; the marker is where the records are densest and decides nothing: the climate was read across the cells of the in-range records placed well enough to read one, not at the marker.
Openly licensed records inside the range, framed on where they fall.
NativeNew Mexico, Texas, Florida, South Carolina, Mexico Northeast, Mexico Gulf, Mexico Northwest, Mexico Southwest, Mexico Southeast, Belize, Guatemala, Honduras, Aruba, Bahamas, Cuba, Dominican Republic, Haiti, Jamaica, Leeward Is. AB Ant, Netherlands Antilles, Puerto Rico, Windward Is., Galápagos · introduced: Finland, Belgium, Germany, Netherlands, Spain, Italy, China North-Central, China Southeast, Assam, India, Trinidad-Tobago · regions are the level-3 units of the World Geographical Scheme for Recording Plant Distributions, as Kew's World Checklist records ranges, some under historical names such as Yugoslavia or Czechoslovakia (how).
Map marker29.554, -98.491 · in the densest population, 595 records (65% of those in range)
Kew's description“annual” · “seasonally dry tropical” · quoted from WCVP, RBG Kew (CC BY 4.0); not derived here
Evidence usedThe map marker rests on all 922 georeferenced records inside the native range; the climate across the range on the 740 of them in the land cells it reads, of 744 placed to within 10 km; the map shows only the 327 openly licensed ones, which alone would put the marker 7 km away. 88 records outside the WCVP native range not used. 178 in-range records are placed to worse than 10 km, or with no stated accuracy (admitted only as a person's observation to three decimals), and stay on the map but off the climate.
How this section is made
The map marker: the openly licensed record nearest the middle of the densest 1° population of the 922 in-range records; it decides nothing. Records outside the native range, living specimens and records marked introduced are not used; which records count.

Photographs

Amaranthus polygonoides, photograph 1did not loadAmaranthus polygonoides, photograph 2did not loadAmaranthus polygonoides, photograph 3did not loadAmaranthus polygonoides, photograph 4did not loadAmaranthus polygonoides, photograph 5did not loadAmaranthus polygonoides, photograph 6did not load

Photographs: (c) Linda Jo Conn, some rights reserved (CC BY) (4); author not stated, no rights reserved · CC0; (c) Michelle W. （鍾偉瑋）, some rights reserved (CC BY).

Similar habitat climate The 6 nearest by mean daily high, mean nightly low and rain, month by month. How.

Fraxinus berlandieriana Fraxinus berlandieriana Berlandier ash Photo: CC BY, Craig HensleySolanum triquetrum Solanum triquetrum Texas nightshade Photo: CC BY-SA, Turner BrockmanAristolochia erecta Aristolochia erecta Dutchman's pipe Photo: CC BY, Cleveland PowellRuellia ciliatiflora Ruellia ciliatiflora Hairyflower wild petunia Photo: CC BY, Reanne ("Bean") DunnLantana urticoides Lantana urticoides Texas lantana Photo: CC BY, Craig HensleyAgalinis strictifolia Agalinis strictifolia Stiffleaf false foxglove Photo: CC0, author not stated

Other Amaranthus 23 in the reference

Amaranthus albus Amaranthus albus White pigweed Photo: CC0, author not statedAmaranthus australis Amaranthus australis Southern amaranth Photo: CC0, author not statedAmaranthus blitoides Amaranthus blitoides Prostrate pigweed Photo: CC BY, Tatyana SovaAmaranthus blitum Amaranthus blitum Purple amaranth Photo: CC BY, Jason GrantAmaranthus caudatus Amaranthus caudatus Love-lies-bleeding Photo: CC BY, Evgenij SamarinAmaranthus cruentus Amaranthus cruentus Purple amaranth Photo: CC0, author not statedAmaranthus deflexus Amaranthus deflexus Perennial pigweed Photo: CC BY-SA, Pere BarnolaAmaranthus dubius Amaranthus dubius Spleen Amaranth Photo: CC BY, scallionsAmaranthus fimbriatus Amaranthus fimbriatus Amaranthaceae Photo: CC BY, Jo Roberts Amaranthus floridanus Florida amaranth Amaranthus graecizans Amaranthus graecizans Mediterranean amaranth Photo: CC BY, Michael AndresekAmaranthus hybridus Amaranthus hybridus Green amaranth Photo: CC BY, zebedeugalinha all 24 ›

Names & registers

Also known as Albersia polygonoides; Amaranthus berlandieri; Amaranthus polygonoides subsp. berlandieri; Amaranthus polygonoides var. berlandieri; Amaranthus taishanensis and 7 more. (GBIF Backbone)

GBIFPOWOIPNIWFOWikidataWikipediaiNaturalist

The record

Family
Amaranthaceae
Described by
L.
Native to
New Mexico, Texas, Florida +20
Wild records
922 in range · 327 open

Every figure here is derived from public data by a stated rule and names its source; nothing about this species is written for its page by a person or by AI, apart from the marked, credited quotations. How →

Where this page came from built 2026-10-21
GBIF species record gbif.species answeredasked 2026-10-21
GBIF synonyms gbif.synonyms answeredasked 2026-10-21
GBIF common names gbif.vernacular answeredasked 2026-10-21names fetched 2026-10-21
WCVP native range wcvp.distribution answeredas of 2026-06-04
GBIF occurrence records gbif.occurrences answeredas of 2026-10-21GBIF occurrence download https://doi.org/10.15468/dl.hbdw64, of 2026-10-21; 51 records within 1 km of a botanic garden, herbarium or zoo left out (30 at a botanic garden or arboretum, 21 at a zoo; Wikidata's list)
Habitat climate climate answeredasked 2026-10-21
Daily extremes (NASA POWER) climate.extremes answeredasked 2026-10-21NASA POWER (MERRA-2) daily 1981–2024, cell 29.50_-98.750, lapse-corrected -62 m at 6.5 °C/km
Wikidata wikidata answeredasked 2026-10-21
Wikipedia wikipedia answeredasked 2026-10-21
iNaturalist photographs, wild inat.photos.wild answeredasked 2026-10-22from iNaturalist's open data of 2026-09-27: research-grade observations with an open-licence photograph, the 24 whose photographs iNaturalist received last (the open data holds no votes); filled 2026-10-22
iNaturalist photographs, cultivated inat.photos.cultivated not asked
GBIF media gbif.media answeredasked 2026-10-21
OpenAlex papers openalex not askednot yet asked for this reference; a later fill takes the papers from OpenAlex's snapshot

Every source is recorded as having answered, reported nothing, refused, failed, not been asked, or answered twice where one answer is taken (“not taken: two items answered”), and, for a source asked when this page was built, when: the figures are as the source held them that day; a source read from a file (Kew's World Checklist, a GBIF download) says "as of" the file's day instead; a row carried from an earlier build of the page names that build instead. Only “nothing to report” is ever shown as an absence. Records came from 58 datasets via GBIF.org; each carries its own licence.

Cultifolio

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