Elephant Head

A. caudatus. A beautiful amaranth unlike any other. 3-4' tall plants have very large club shaped inflorescences that look like an elephant's head and trunk. Very dense inflorescences are dark red to purple. Stems are green with pink coloration. All branches near the base of the stem. Lanceolate leaves have a pigmented margin and purplish hue over entire leaf blade. Black seeded. Only amaranth with no lodging in 2015 Heritage Farm growout. This variety came to SSE from Dr. Alan Kapuler of Peace Seeds (CV Pe1), whose catalogs offered it from 1989-1993, and from 2002-2014. CV Pe1 indicated that their seed source was Frances Hoffman, in Nampa, ID. Frances grew the variety for 40 years after she received the seeds from 2 generations of German gardeners who grew them since the 1880’s. This variety appears to have been introduced to the US seed trade by Peace Seeds, as it does not appear to be commercially available in the US prior to 1989. SSE Accession # 100055