Joseph's Coat Identification Guide

Key Identifying Features

Joseph's coat (Amaranthus tricolor) is a striking annual in the amaranth family grown for its vividly multicolored foliage rather than its flowers. The upper leaves blaze in combinations of scarlet, crimson, gold, bronze, and green, often concentrated near the growing tips like a flaming topknot. The plant is upright, 2–4 feet tall, and the more sun and heat it gets, the more intense the leaf color becomes.

• Erect, branching annual, 2–4 feet tall
• Brilliantly multicolored upper leaves (red, gold, bronze, green)
• Tiny, inconspicuous flower clusters in leaf axils
• Color intensifies in heat and full sun

Leaves & Stems

Leaves are alternate, oval to lance- or diamond-shaped, with pointed tips, wavy or smooth margins, and prominent veins, on long stalks. Lower leaves may stay plain green, while the upper leaves turn the dazzling reds and golds that give the plant its name. Stems are stout, upright, ridged, and often flushed with the same hot colors. (Note: some plants sold as 'Joseph's coat' are the unrelated Alternanthera; true Amaranthus tricolor has the tall upright form described here.)

Flowers & Fruit

Flowers are tiny, greenish or reddish, and chaffy, clustered tightly in the leaf axils rather than in showy plumes. They are easy to overlook beneath the brilliant foliage. Fruit is a small capsule with a single shiny black seed, typical of amaranths.

How to Tell It Apart from Look-Alikes

• Coleus also has colorful leaves but has square stems, opposite leaves, and the scalloped form of the mint family; Joseph's coat has round-ish stems and alternate leaves.
• Alternanthera (also called Joseph's coat) is a low, small-leaved bedding plant, not the tall upright amaranth.
• Other amaranths are mostly green; the concentrated multicolored leafy crown sets A. tricolor apart.

Where You'll Find It

Joseph's coat is grown as a warm-season foliage accent in sunny beds and containers, and the young leaves of some strains are eaten as a leafy vegetable in Asian and African cuisine. It thrives in heat and full sun and is found in ornamental and vegetable gardens worldwide. It is frost-sensitive and grown fresh each year.

Quick ID Checklist

• Upright annual, 2–4 ft, branching
• Multicolored upper leaves in red, gold, bronze, green
• Alternate, oval to diamond-shaped pointed leaves
• Tiny chaffy flowers tucked in leaf axils
• Color deepens in heat and sun

A tall annual crowned with flaming red-and-gold leaves and tiny axil flowers is Joseph's coat amaranth.