Amaranthus hypochondriacus Pygmy Torch seeds - Prince's feather

Amaranthus hypochondriacus ‘Pygmy Torch’ is a compact love-lies-bleeding with large dark purple spikes that add character to borders and floral displays. This annual offers green foliage washed with purple and long, densely flowered panicles. An ornamental variety, it also provides tender leaves and small edible black seeds, while feeding garden birds at the end of the season. Awarded the RHS Award of Garden Merit, ‘Pygmy Torch’ is a reliable choice for the garden or pots!

Amaranthus hypochondriacus, the prince's feather, belongs to the Amaranthaceae family. Native to the central United States and Mexico, it is an annual from warm regions, now widely naturalised and grown as an ornamental and grain plant in many parts of the world.
‘Pygmy Torch’ is a compact cultivar derived from this species. While the classic grain amaranth can exceed 1.50m in height, ‘Pygmy Torch’ forms an upright clump of 40 to 50cm tall and 30 to 45cm wide in one season, sometimes a little more in very rich soil. Its green to reddish stems branch easily, especially if young plants are pinched out. The simple, entire, elliptical to lanceolate leaves are 6 to 12 cm long and a medium green colour, more or less tinged with purple, creating a well-furnished foliage right down to the base of the plant. 
At the tips of the stems, upright, densely floriferous panicles of a very dark burgundy red develop, like small velvety torches. The flowering period extends from July until the frosts for a spring sowing. The tiny flowers, gathered in large numbers, are barely perceptible individually; pollination is carried out by the wind, as with most amaranths. In late summer, the spikes become laden with shiny, brown to blackish seeds, appreciated by garden birds and usable, in small quantities, in human food.

Not very tall, but richly coloured, ‘Pygmy Torch’ easily finds its place in a border, a cottage garden or a small ornamental vegetable garden. It can be sown in groups to form a small colourful screen or slipped into flower containers on a sunny patio. It pairs well with dark dahlias such as ‘Karma Choc’, unusual zinnias like ‘Queen Red Lime’, or purple cosmos 'Rubenza’. To play with contrasts of form and colour, it can be paired with a large orange amaranth such as ‘Hot Biscuits’.

Like all amaranths, the botanical species has a long history: in pre-Columbian America, grain amaranths, including Amaranthus hypochondriacus, were cultivated for food and featured in certain rituals, their seeds sometimes used as a base for moulded offerings, evidence of their symbolic as well as nutritional importance.