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What is love-lies-bleeding?

By Chelsie Vandaveer

February 4, 2005

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High in the Andes, the Runa (Quechua) raise fields of kiwicha. With mountains and brilliant skies as a backdrop, the fields of red, purple, and yellow pendant spikes are said the most beautiful crop in the world. The kiwicha (Amaranthus caudatus Linnaeus) is a grain amaranth developed in the mountains of Peru, Bolivia, Ecuador and northern Argentina. The 'grains' are tiny, poppyseed-sized, but each plant can produce 100,000 seeds.

Meeting Between Spanish Conqueror Pizarro and Inca Leader Atahualpa
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The Andean peoples have cultivated the kiwicha [kee wee' chah] for the last 4000 years. The crop was almost forgotten after Pizarro's conquest of the Incan Empire, but the kiwicha is nutritious and grows where other grains cannot. The Runa returned to their colorful crop.

According to Daniel K. Early (1990), kiwicha may be cultivated in señales (between rows of other crops) or in intercalados (alternated with other plants in the same row). Corn (Zea mays) is a frequent companion plant growing side by side with kiwicha. Often, the amaranth is sown as a border surrounding a field for it is said that kiwicha protects the crop from wind, animals, and thieves.

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The kiwicha was taken back to Europe, but not as a food plant. The tall plants with their bright pendant spikes graced the flower gardens around palaces and mansions. Perhaps, it was merely chance or, maybe European gardeners simply preferred it, but red was the overwhelming choice of flower color.

But the kiwicha has a problem that the Runa deal with by cultivating them between other plants. They simply have weak root systems. Wind and heavy rain topple the plants; the long red pendants of flowers get beaten to the soil. Sometime in the late Renaissance or during the Romantic age, the fallen plants were thought tragic like a wounded champion or that "love-lies-bleeding" on the ground.

The Kemper Center for Home Gardening of the Missouri Botanical Garden has an information page on love-lies-bleeding. To view a photograph of the plant and learn more about its cultivation in a garden, click on the link:

http://www.mobot.org/gardeninghelp/plantfinder/Plant.asp?code=A558

(Compiled from: "Amaranth Intercropping Techniques of Andean Quechua Peasants", Daniel K. Early, Advances in New Crops, J. Janick and J.E. Simon, eds, Timber Press, Portland OR, 1990; "Kiwicha", Lost Crops of the Incas: Little-Known Plants of the Andes with Promise for Worldwide Cultivation, National Academy of Sciences, 1989; "10. Amaranthus caudatus Linnaeus", Flora of North America, Vol. 4, pg 405, eFloras.org; The 1889 Century Unabridged Dictionary, Global Language Resources, 2001-2005.)

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