Family: Amaranthaceae
High Risk Traits:
- Broad climate suitability & thrives in tropical climates
- Elevation range exceeds 1000 m
- Widely naturalized
- Weed of agriculture and waste places
- Related Achyranthes species have become invasive
- Bracts and bracteoles are spine-tipped
- May have allelopathic properties
- Alternate host of tomato yellow leaf curl virus
- Tolerates many soil types
- Forms dense thickets
- Autogamous
- Can reach maturity in 1 year
- Seeds stick to clothes, fur, and feathers and easily transported by birds, mammals, and humans
- Forms a persistent seed bank
- Able to coppice
Low Risk Traits:
- Medicinal uses
- Requires full sun
- Does not spread vegetatively
- Herbicides provide effective control during the seedling stage
