Garden orache
Atriplex hortensis · Amaranth family
Plant portrait
Orache carries triangular leaves, green or purple depending on the variety.
Harvested part
The young leaves.
What to watch for
Watch new leaves and the stem elongating before seed production.
Growth stages of the garden orache
Plotilo illustrates the garden orache in 5 stages in 3D: seed, small sprout, young plant, growing and harvest. The models show typical shapes; they do not predict how long growth takes.
- Seed
Starting from a seed. It is shown on the surface to make it visible in this illustration.
- Small sprout
A short first stem and its first small leaves emerge.
- Young plant
The young plant carries more leaves and starts to take its own shape.
- Growing
Leaves and stems develop. Their shape depends on the species.
- Harvest
An illustration of the harvested part. Roots are made visible for clarity; this image does not confirm actual maturity.
Same botanical family
Same botanical family as the garden orache (the amaranth family): the beetroot, the spinach and the chard. Gardeners usually avoid growing the same family in the same spot several years in a row: that is the idea behind crop rotation.