Abstract
Morphological and karyotypical analyses of five species of Amaranthus (sect. Blitopsis) have been undertaken. The species are found to be quite distinct, differing in height, mode of branching, shape as well as size of the leaf, structure of infloresence, nature of bract as well as utricle and mode of dehiscence of ripe utricle. Compared to the wild species, the cultivated ones show advanced characters due to selection. The karyotypes of all the species are very much asymmetric with variation in size as well as in form of chromosome sets. No two species are karyotypically alike. Evidently, the species differentiation in members of the section is caused by chromosome repatterning and in evolution of the species structural alterations of chromosomes are playing a key-role.
