Amaranthus hybridus Linnaeus var. hypochondriacus (Linnaeus) Robinson; A. hybridus subsp. hypochondriacus (Linnaeus) Thellung.

Stem green or purple, 10-80 cm tall, branched, glabrous or slightly pilose. Petiole 1-7.5 cm, glabrous; leaf blade rhombic-ovate or oblong-lanceolate, 3-10 × 1.5-3.5 cm, glabrous, base cuneate, margin entire or undulate, apex acute or acuminate. Complex thyrsoid structures terminal, erect, cylindric, ca. 25 cm, 1-2.5 cm in diam., branched or not, composed of many spikes; lateral spikes short, ca. 6 cm. Bracts green or purple, ovate, subulate, 4-5 mm, ca. 2 × as long as perianth, apex distinctly long pointed. Tepals green or purple, with a dark midvein, oblong, ca. as long as or longer than fruit, apex acute or acuminate. Stigmas 2 or 3. Utricles exceeding perianth, green, tinged purple above, rhomboid-ovoid, 3-4 mm, circumscissile. Seeds white, subglobose, ca. 1 mm in diam. Fl. Jul-Aug, fr. Aug-Sep. 2n = 32.

Cultivated. Hebei, Jilin, Nei Mongol, Sichuan, Xinjiang, Yunnan [native to North America].