Amaranth (color)

This article is about the color. For other uses, see Amaranth (disambiguation).

Amaranth #E52B50

The flower of the amaranth plant

Amaranth is a reddish-rose color that is a representation of the color of the flower of the amaranth plant. The color shown is the color of the red amaranth flower (the color normally considered amaranth), but there are other varieties of amaranth that have other colors of amaranth flowers; these colors are also shown below.

The color amaranth is similar to printer's magenta (pigment magenta) (but redder). It is the color of the flower of those amaranth plants that have amaranth red colored flowers.

The first recorded use of amaranth as a color name in English was in 1690.

Amaranth

The color amaranth is also called amaranth red to distinguish it from the varying colors of other varieties of the amaranth flower.

This color is similar to printer's magenta (pigment magenta) (Hex Code #FF0090) (but a lot more reddish). It is the color of the flower of those amaranth plants that have amaranth red colored flowers.

The first recorded use of amaranth as a color name in English was in 1690.

Etymology

The name amaranth comes from the Greek a (not) + marainean (to waste away), i.e., a flower believed to grow on Mount Olympus which never died.

Variations of amaranth

Amaranth pink

The first recorded use of amaranth pink as a color name in English was in 1905.

Radical red (bright amaranth pink)

Radical Red
— Color coordinates —
Hex triplet		#FF355E
RGBB	(r, g, b)	(255, 53, 94)
HSV	(h, s, v)	(345°, 84%, 84%)
Source		Crayola
B: Normalized to [0–255] (byte)

The Crayola crayon color radical red is displayed at right.

The color radical red, which may also be called bright amaranth pink^{[citation needed]}, was formulated by Crayola in 1990.

Amaranth purple

The first recorded use of amaranth purple as a color name in English was in 1912.

In popular culture

Horticulture

• Amaranth flowers in their various colors are popular garden plants.

Literature

• Amaranth is the name of the otherworldly pantheon that amuses itself by toying with individuals' luck in Tim Lebbon's novella "The Unfortunate".
• In Garth Nix's novel Abhorsen, the third chapter is entitled "Amaranth, Rosemary and Tears".
• Love-Lies-Bleeding (a poetic name for the amaranth flower) is the title of a 2005 play by Don DeLillo.
• In Orson Scott Card's novel Speaker for the Dead, amaranth is the only grass in the limited ecosystem of the planet Lusitania.
• In the novel To Live Forever by Jack Vance, the members of the Amaranth Society have achieved immortality.

Music

• Amaranth is the title of a music CD by composer Robert Agis.
• In the AFI song, "The Great Disappointment", Davey Havok sings: "I can remember. I searched for the amaranth. I'd shut my eyes to see."
• The Swedish gothic/doom metal band Draconian has written a song titled "The Amaranth".
• Amarantine is the name of a 2005 album and single by Irish vocal artist Enya, and is mentioned in her song Flora's Secret wherein she sings: "Looking up through eyes of amaranthine."
• It is a song by Finnish symphonic/power metal band Nightwish, for their 2007 album Dark Passion Play.
• In the Animal Collective song, "Cuckoo Cuckoo," Avey Tare sings: "I can't see the landscape. Please describe its amaranthine haze."

Mythology

• In Greek mythology, Amaranthus was a hunter of the island of Euboea, a son of King Abas. He was loved by the goddess Artemis and joined her in the hunt. But he insulted Poseidon as worthless, claiming the bounty of the hunt was superior to that of the sea. For this the god sent a giant wave which washed him into the sea and drowned him. Artemis then turned him into an amaranth-flower, her sacred plant.

Poetry and literary symbolism

• The color amaranth represents immortality in Western culture because the name is derived from the name in Greek mythology of a flower that was believed to never die that grew in the abode of the Greek gods on Mount Olympus. Something that is perceived as everlasting may be described by the adjective amaranthine. (The color peach represents immortality in Chinese culture, because in Daoism the Goddess of the West is believed to guard the peach trees of immortality in the Tian Shan mountains.)
• Amaranth is the name of a long Sapphic poem by the imagiste poet H.D., and is based on Sappho's fragment 131.

Sports

• Italian football teams Livorno and Reggina have amaranth as their traditional home kit color.
• Noted British motorcycle designer, Edward Turner chose Amaranth red as the color for his revolutionary 1938 Triumph Speed Twin in memory of his late first wife's appreciation of its bloom. The model kept this color throughout its model run and initially upon re-design in 1959.

Video Games

• In the video game Final Fantasy IX, Amarant Coral is a character with red hair; he is also known as "Flaming Amarant", "Scarlet Hair", and "Red".

See also

• Amaranth (dye)
• Cerise (color)
• Crimson (color)
• List of colors
• Rose (color)
• Ruby (color)

External links

• Web page showing the various colors of amaranth flowers:
• [1] Picture of purple amaranth flower
• Robert W. Freckmann Herbarium: Amaranthus cruentus L.:
• Picture of a deep purple amaranth flower: