Amaranth as a melliferous plant does not differ in sufficient nectar secretion. Bees are reluctant to visit blossoming inflorescences, so it has no special value for beekeeping.
It is an abundantly flowering annual or perennial fodder medicinal herb. Popularly known more as “cockscomb”, “cat’s tail”, “shiritsa”, “velvet” or “fox’s tail”.
The content of the article
- 1 Distribution and Description
- 1.1 Varieties
- 2 Significance for agriculture
- 3 Agrotechnics
- 4 Honey productivity
Distribution and Description
It grows well in the temperate warm zone of European countries, in the South and North America, in the European part of Russia, in Ukraine. Some species are cultivated in Indian and Chinese regions.
Initially, this herb with a bright inflorescence was brought to the European continent by the Spaniards and began to grow as an ornamental plant. And from the 18th century they began to cultivate it as a full-fledged forage and grain crop. At the same time, different varieties were pollinated among themselves – cultural plantings lost their properties and turned into weed thickets, which were difficult to get rid of.
Nowadays, the two main varieties are:
- cultural annual;
- and a perennial weed.
The main part of the stems of the grass has a simple structure, but there are also more branchy shoots near the inflorescences themselves.
The leaves are light green or dark red, large, ovoid-diamond-shaped, with characteristic notches on the elongated sharp tips. The height of the forage plant can reach two or three meters in height.
Small axillary purple or greenish flowers are collected in small bunches in long dense panicles.
The fruit is a grain capsule. Up to half a million small feed grains can be obtained from one plant.
Varieties
There are about 105 varieties of grass in total. In our climate, farmers cultivate mainly white, jmindoid, bluish and upturned amaranth.
As an ornamental plantation, three types of floral and decorative character are used: paniculate, sad and tailed; and one deciduous ornamental: tricolor.
Significance for agriculture
The grass is valued as a highly productive grain and fodder crop.
Many species are suitable for grain harvesting (used for poultry), silage and green forage. Pigs and cattle gain weight quickly, happily eating greens and silage, which has a noticeable pleasant apple flavor.
The yield of the plant is high: from one hectare of plantations in general, you can get up to one and a half and more thousand centners of green mass per season, and up to fifty centners of full grain fodder.
Four types of plants are used by flower growers to decorate flower beds and gardens in their backyard plots.
In folk medicine, oil squeezed from grains is used, which is used to treat oncology, children’s enuresis, inflammatory processes, diabetes, neuroses.
Young leaves taste like spinach and can be chopped when preparing salads along with other summer vegetables. Flour from grains is in no way inferior in its taste to wheat.
Agrotechnics
Amaranth is unpretentious in care and planting. It tolerates dry weather well. Does not lend itself to seasonal diseases and pests.
It is grown in two ways:
- seedlings;
- and sowing in open ground in early spring.
When planting seedlings, the soil must be well warmed up! Plants thrive better in areas exposed to the sun.
If amaranth is grown by planting in open ground, the soil temperature should not exceed +8 degrees. This allows small grains to sprout quickly and drown out weeds. In the future, dense amaranth thickets relieve the owners of the need for seasonal weeding.
Honey productivity
Based on the observations of many beekeepers, it is safe to say that amaranth is not a honey crop.
Its brightly blooming inflorescences are poorly visited by bees, since the plant emits a small amount of nectar and does not attract pollinating insects with its neutral aroma. Monofloral honey from amaranth does not exist.
