9 Different Varieties of Celosia Flowers and Their Charms

Now that you want to perk up your garden with something beautiful and useful, celosia flowers should be on the top list.

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Coming in a huge variety, these flowers not only help to make your outdoor space stunning but also provide you with valuable ingredients for many delicious cuisines.

Once planted properly, you can expect these flowers to grow annually with high seed production. The plants can generate around 440-1543 pounds per hectare.

Each ounce of celosia flower seed typically contains more than 43,000 pretty small kernels.

For this reason, one gram of the seed may include up to 1,000 kernels. Depending on the location and the soil’s fertility, these flowers can bloom around eight to 10 weeks.

Are Celosia Plants Edible?

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Celosia flowers are also well-known for their edible traits, making them a popular ingredient for many foods around the world.

Many people grow these flowers as vegetables, especially in the West Indies, Southeast Asia, tropical Africa, and South America.

You can use the leaves of these flowers to make stew. The same applies to the young stems and inflorescences too.

Their leaves taste slightly like spinach with a soft texture. Some recipes suggest combining them with fresh lime, garlic, red palm oil, and hot pepper for a delicious celosia cuisine.

Besides, you can also serve celosia plants as a side dish instead of the main ingredients of your cuisines.

What are the Various Types of Celosia Flowers?

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This ornamental plant is a part of the Amaranth family and is known as Amaranthaceae. You may also call it wool flowers since many people use the name too.

The highlands of East Africa are the main habitat of celosia flowers. In their origin area, the plant is known as ‘mfungu’.

Meanwhile, if you wonder what celosia meaning is in general, the name actually came from a very old Greek word that stands for burning, referring to the appearance of the blossoms’ heads.

Now, refer to the following information to discover a different variety of celosia flowers around the world.

Celosia trigyna

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If you heard people talking about wool flowers, they commonly refer to this type of celosia plant. The species is called that way because of its extraordinary blooms.

Celosia trigyna grows up to 1 meter tall and is considered as a weed in a lot of regions around the world.

You can easily cultivate these celosia flowers from seeds and count on them as a source of good throughout deficiencies.

As a hardy plant, the Trigyna is capable to withstand drought. Then, when this species is completely grown, its leaves are often boiled for food like cabbage.

Since it has a somewhat bitter taste, people tend to mix the celosia with other foods to cover the flavor.

The branches of Celosia trigyna have a silver tinge on them, making the plant is often called silver spinach too.

When you take a look at the leaves, they come with a crescent shape and slightly appear like stipules.

Grasslands, rocky grounds, and woodlands are among the favorite areas for these Celosia flowers to grow. However, you may find them as semi-aquatic plants as well, particularly when cultivating along water channels.

Celosia trigyna can do well in altitude under 2000 meters or until the area where it can endure the cold. You can expect to see the flowers of this plant between March and July.

Celosia Plumosa

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Favorable for ornamental purposes, this celosia features brilliant, large blossoms that can adorn any outdoor spaces.

You can enjoy the colorful blooms of the Plumosa between spring and fall. The color itself is ranging from red, orange, yellow, and pink.

Celosia plumosa also comes in some different varieties including fresh red blossoms look that acquires downy plumes.

Keep in mind that these celosia flowers are a kind of tender perennial that can stand for one season only. Thus, you need to replant the plant to enjoy the same blooms in the upcoming spring.

While the flower is mainly cultivated in cold-winter areas, it is not very difficult to maintain. You can grow the Plumosa in flower beds, containers, or even indoors.

Thanks to the vividly colored plumes, these flowers look stunning in a group. The plant itself can reach 6 inches to 2 feet once grown-up, making it ideal for houseplants.

When planting celosia in pots, make sure to place the container in a spot that receives full sun. Windowsills and sunrooms are the most ideal spots to plant this flower indoors.

Moreover, you need to provide these celosia flowers with well-drained yet moist soil to avoid dead leaves and fungus.

This flower is perfect if you want something that grows easily and is not prone to a lot of pests. Although mites can be an issue, it is pretty simple to deal with.

Just make sure to avoid giving the Plumosa very soggy soil and weed the plant regularly. To prevent fungal diseases, never water the leaves as well as the flowers directly.

Celosia Floribunda

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Discovered in the Baja California Sur area, these celosia flowers can reach 4 meters in height, making them one of the tallest varieties of the species.

Celosia floribunda was found by John Xantus and is typically coming from a shrub or little tree.

The branches of this plant are in a shade of grey to green, contrasting the inflorescences in an adoring way.

Meanwhile, the leaves of this celosia are dissimilar in sizes, ranging from a half-centimeter to 4.3 inches. Then, their oval-shaped foliages feature piercing edges while the sepals come in straw to paper white hues.

Celosia Cristata

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Commonly known as the Crested Cockscomb flower, Celosia cristata is popular for its blossom head that resembles the red crown on roosters’ skull.

The Cristata is native to India and was originally discovered in the said country only. However, you can now find the plant in other regions after Indian, Chinese, as well as Burmese gardeners, started to grow it near temples.

Nowadays, the actoploid species of the Argentea plant is growing all around the world, especially in tropical and subtropical areas.

You can find the tetraploid variant of the plant in central and southern India.

More interestingly, these celosia flowers can withstand a lot of diseases and are somewhat hardy. You should grow them in full sun without any shade at all for the best result.

Consider growing the Crested Cockscomb flower as ornamental plants since it blooms fascinatingly. The blossoms have incredible colors including red, yellow, orange, and pink.

Moreover, the Cristata also comes with inflorescences that appear like curly crests. Once you touch them, they will feel velvety.

The blooming period of the Cristata is around eight weeks. Meanwhile, the plant can get up to 30 cm tall or smaller when grown-up.

In India, South America, and Western Africa, the blossoms, stems, as well as the leaves of this plant are utilized as vegetables.

You may grow these celosia flowers in narrow farms or gardens as people in Indonesia, Benin, Congo, Southern Nigeria do.

If you are visiting Korea, it is possible to see the Cristata on rice cakes, desserts, and even some flower-infused alcoholic drinks.

Celosia Argentea

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Generally known as plumed or silver’s cockscomb, these celosia flowers are a kind of herbaceous plant that you can find easily in tropical regions, especially one with full sunlight exposure.

Celosia argentea has dazzling blossoms that make it favorable for ornamental uses. However, some people in India and China often consider this plant as a worrying weed.

You can cut its flowers in the middle of spring to summer and give them to your lover since the plant is blooming in this period.

Because the blossoms are hermaphrodites, it is very easy to cultivate the Argantea for mass production and harvesting.

Similar to other types of celosia flowers, the blooms of Argentea propagate through extremely tiny seeds.

For the best growth, provide this celosia with well-drained soil. Doing so allows you to expect the flower heads to last around eight to 10 weeks.

If you want to grow the Argentea for the upcoming season, make sure to get rid of the dead flowers.

The Argentea also acquires a cultivar named Flamingo Feathers that feature vivid colors such as pink and light violet. Meanwhile, the leaves are typically dark green.

Flamingo Feathers is capable to grow up to 60 cm tall and has two primary celosia types including Kimono as well as century cultivators.

Aside from being a perfect ornamental plant, people in some countries also use the Cockscomb Celosia for making soap.

In Africa, these celosia flowers also help to deal with the parasitic Striga plants.

Many people in other regions tend to grow the Argentea as a vegetable as well. This plant is even named Lagos Spinach in Africa and Southeast Asia.

You can also find this celosia plant cultivated widely in Mexico, West Indies, Nigeria, and Spain for a variety of purposes.

Celosia Spicata

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While being known as the wheat celosia, the Spicata is popular for its exceptional flower spikes that look like the sheaves of this grain.

Like other celosia flowers, the Spicata is edible and perfect for ornamental uses. It is native to several countries including northern Africa, South America, as well as North America.

Celosia spicata comes with annual blossoms that tend to grow perfectly in hardiness Zones 9 to 11.

Since it features some powerful stems, the Spicata becomes a bushy, open plant that is branching in many directions.

You can also find distinctive burgundy tinges on this celosia that looks fancy against the brilliant flowers. Meanwhile, its cylindrical inflorescences may come in pink, red, purple, or even dua-colored.

The Spicata grows as little flowers that are typically strong enough to last through the frost and keep on blooming until the end of fall.

In Southeast as well as East Asia and tropical regions in Africa, this plant is known as a leaf vegetable.

Its soft texture and spinach-like flavor make these celosia flowers popular as a food. Meanwhile, the flowers are loved by bees, wasps, butterflies, as well as hummingbirds due to their nectar.

This plant is capable to grow pretty tall and may require staking in windy areas. Then, the germination process of the Spicata typically takes around 2-3 weeks.

Interestingly, this celosia plant has a lot of cultivators and hybrids including Pink Candle that comes with a deep crimson flower with silver tinges.

Moreover, there is also Glowing Spears, a Spicata cultivator that produces intense purple-red flowers.

If you want to have one with a dark rose blossom, the Ruby Parfait is the one. There is also a hybrid with a mix of white, red, and pink spikes named Kosmo.

Celosia Isertii

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These celosia flowers own a lot of different names all around the world. In Gambia, they are known as the Manding Mandika Furaynamo that means demise grass.

People in Nigeria call the Isertii Fula-Fulfulde Jarfundu while in Sierra Leone, the plant is known as Mende Gimbui.

It is also known as Yoruba. What this celosia flower meaning is in Millson related to its flavor that is good to eat.

Meanwhile, people in other regions may call this celosia Temne and Hausa Bokan Gida too.

Despite having many diverse names, Celosia isertii serves a similar purpose in cooking. It is often added to a variety of cuisines around the world as sauces, spices, flavorings, and condiments.

You can also boil the leaves of Isertii and prepare them as a tasty soup. Due to its medicinal properties, adding these celosia flowers into your recipe should not go wrong.

The plant typically cultivates in a bush and grows up to 9.8 ft in height. The base of the Isertii is occasionally woody and its habitats may include clearings, damp sites, forests, savanna, as well as stream banks.

Angola, Zambia, Tanganyika, Cameroun, Senegal, and Southern Nigeria are where you can discover the Isertii effortlessly.

Due to its fascinating colors, these celosia flowers make an ideal ornamental plant. Many people also include the blooms of Isertii in their bouquets.

Don’t forget that this straggling herb can help to treat rheumatism and arthritis too.

Celosia Nitida Texana

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Frequently known as the West Indian Cockscomb, the Celosia nitida is a perennial plant that you can discover in Florida and Texas.

Compared to other varieties of celosia flowers, the Nitida is considered as endangered species. As a result, this plant is currently being cultivated heavily in South and Central America to prevent the issue.

Celosia nitida can reach 6 ft tall when grows up in proper conditions. Meanwhile, the plant will bloom throughout the fall and winter, offering colorful flowers in any garden.

Celosia Virgata

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Among the diverse types of celosia flowers mentioned above, you will find it very hard to meet the Virgata since this species is very rare.

This perennial plant typically grows in sub-shrubs as a forb or herb. Also known as Albahaca in several areas, Celosia Virgata is mainly discovered in Caribbean regions including Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands.

Celosia virgata has stems that can grow several inches in height and appear like a weed. Meanwhile, its blossoms tend to shape pretty spikes.

Altogether, the stunning spikes of this celosia flower look very nice against the green leaves.

How Do You Care Celosia Plants?

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If you are interested in growing any variety of celosia plants, knowing the right way to care for this species will be important.

The biggest concern of celosia flower care is typically to maintain the soil moist without making it too damp.

Moreover, most celosia varieties love the full sun to grow properly. This plant also needs warm weather, especially for thriving and germination.

When it comes to watering the plant, just make sure to provide it with wall-draining soil. As a result, heavy rain or unintentional overwatering will not be a problem since the water can be drained away properly.

Since celosia enjoys full sun very much, remember to put it in a spot where the plant can obtain minimally 8 hours of daily sunlight.

Even though most celosia flowers can withstand partial shade, growing them in full sun is more likely to give the best results.

To germinate, this plant will require warm conditions of 26.6 Celsius. If you are living in the hardiness zones 2 to 9, it should provide the best environment for Celosia to grow.

How Do You Propagate Celosia Plants?

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You can plant most types of celosia from seed as they can germinate easily in the proper situations.

Consider utilizing a seed tray and spread the kernels over high-quality potting soil. After that, cover them with several inches of loam.

Since Celosia needs warm soil to germinate, you may like to provide it with a heating pad during the growing season.

To keep the soil moist, give your Celosia flowers a daily water spray. You can try to cover the tray with transparent plastic too to make a humid condition for the plant.

Light is not an essential factor for celosia germination. Otherwise, too much illumination may distract the seedlings from forming perfectly.

Finally, are you ready to plant your first celosia flowers in the garden? Choose one or two varieties from the above list and grow them properly!

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