Sinopsis del subgénero amaranthus (amaranthus, amaranthaceae) en Venezuela

the genus amaranthus l. belongs to amaranthaceae family. it has around 70 species distributed in tropical and subtropical areas of the world; almost 40 species are reported for the american grouped in subgenera acnida, albersia and amaranthus. as a first step towards the systematic study of the continent genus amaranthus in venezuela, the synopsis of the subgenus amaranthus was made, based on national herbaria material, bibliographical revision and own collections. the presence of six species is confirmed in this study: a. congestus, a. dubius, a. hybridus subsp. quitensis, a. retroflexus and a. spinosus. the 22 species of the genus are reduced to 10. keys to the subgenera and the species of subgenus amaranthus are included, as well as morphological descriptions, illustrations and distributional maps in venezuela.