[A. gracilis Desf. ex Poir.; Euxolus lineatus sensu Hillebr., non (R. Br.) Moq.] (nat) Slender amaranth, pakai, ‘ahea- hea, pakaikai, pakapakai (Niihau) Monoecious annual herbs; stems erect or occasionally ascending, 1—8(—10) dm long, sparingly to densely branched, striate, gla¬brous and usually becoming pubescent with multicellular hairs above. Leaves deltate-ovate to narrowly rhombic, blades 2-7 cm long, 1.5-5.5 cm wide, glabrous or lower surface pilose along the veins, apex usually narrow and with a small narrow emargina- tion, petioles 1-10 cm long. Flowers green, in slender, axillary or terminal and often paniculate spikes, sometimes in axillary clusters in lower part of plant, both sexes mixed throughout the spikes, but pistillate flowers more numerous, bracts and brac¬teoles whitish, deltate-ovate to broadly lanceolate, membranous, with a short, pale or reddish awn; sepals 3(4), those of staminate flowers ovate-oblong, ca. 1.5 mm long, apex acute, mucronate, those of pistillate flowers narrowly spatulate to oblong, 1.3- 1.8 mm long, apex ± mucronate; stigmas 2-3 Fruit subglobose, 1.3-1.5 mm long, not or only slightly exceeding the sepals, indehiscent or rupturing irregularly at maturity, conspicuously rugose throughout. Seeds dark brown to black, ± shiny, slightly compressed, 1-1.3 mm long, reticulate and with shallow outgrowths on the reticulum. [2n = 34.] Widespread in tropical and subtropical regions of the world; in Hawaii the most common naturalized species of Amaranthus, occurring in low elevation, disturbed habitats on Kure Atoll, Ka‘ula, Kauai, 0‘ahu, Lanai, Maui, Kaho‘olawe, and Hawaii. First recorded in 1819 by Gaudichaud-Beaupre (St. John & Titcomb, 1983). -Plate4.