Persicaria careyi |
Persicaria hydropiper |
|
---|---|---|
Carey's smartweed, renouée de Carey |
common smartweed, marsh-pepper smartweed, marshpepper knotweed, mild water-pepper, renouée poivre-d'eau, smartweed, water-pepper, water-pepper smartweed |
|
Habit | Plants annual, 3–15(–20) dm; roots also rarely arising from proximal nodes; rhizomes and stolons absent. | Plants annual, 2–8(–10) dm; roots also often arising from proximal nodes; rhizomes and stolons absent. |
Stems | erect, branched distally, ribbed distally, hirsute proximally, stipitate-glandular distally, usually smooth proximally. |
decumbent to ascending or erect, branched, without noticeable ribs, glabrous, glandular-punctate. |
Leaves | ocrea brownish to reddish brown, cylindric, 8–20 mm, chartaceous, base inflated or not, margins truncate, ciliate with bristles 2–7 mm, surface strigose to hirsute, not glandular-punctate, rarely stipitate-glandular; petiole (0.1–)0.5–1.5 cm, hirsute, leaves sometimes sessile; blade without dark triangular or lunate blotch adaxially, narrowly lanceolate, 6–18 × 1–3.5 cm, base tapering, margins antrorsely strigose, apex acuminate to attenuate, faces sparingly hirsute abaxially and adaxially, veins often hirsute, sometimes stipitate-glandular. |
ocrea brown, cylindric or funnelform, (8–)10–15 mm, chartaceous, base inflated, margins truncate, ciliate with bristles 1–4 mm, surface glabrous or strigose, usually glandular-punctate; petiole 0.1–0.8 cm, glandular-punctate, leaves sometimes sessile; blade without dark triangular or lunate blotch adaxially, lanceolate to narrowly rhombic, (1.5–)4–10(–15) × 0.4–2.5 cm, base tapered or cuneate, margins antrorsely strigose, apex acute to acuminate, faces glabrous or scabrous along midveins, glandular-punctate, sometimes obscurely so adaxially. |
Inflorescences | terminal and axillary, nodding or drooping, usually interrupted, 10–100 × 5–10 mm; peduncle 20–50 mm, stipitate-glandular; ocreolae overlapping or not overlapping proximally, margins eciliate or ciliate with bristles to 1.3 mm. |
terminal and axillary, erect or nodding, interrupted or uninterrupted distally, 30–180 × 5–9 mm; peduncle (0–)10–50 mm, sometimes absent on axillary inflorescences and flowers thus enclosed in ocreae, glabrous, glandular-punctate; ocreolae not overlapping or overlapping distally, margins eciliate or ciliate with bristles to 1 mm. |
Pedicels | ascending to spreading, 1–4 mm. |
ascending, 1–3 mm. |
Flowers | (1–)2–8 per ocreate fascicle, homostylous; perianth roseate or purple, glabrous, not glandular-punctate, scarcely accrescent; tepals 5, connate in proximal 1/3, obovate, 2.4–3.2 mm, veins prominent or not, not anchor-shaped, margins entire, apex obtuse to rounded; stamens 5 (or 8), included; anthers pink, elliptic; styles 2, connate to middle. |
1–3(–5) per ocreate fascicle, homostylous; perianth greenish proximally, white or pink distally, glandular-punctate with punctae ± uniformly distributed, scarcely accrescent; tepals 4–5, connate ca. 1/3 their length, petaloid, obovate, 2–3.5 mm, veins prominent or not, not anchor-shaped, margins entire, apex obtuse to rounded; stamens 6–8, included; anthers pink or red, elliptic to ovate; styles 2–3, connate proximally. |
Achenes | included, dark brown to black, biconvex, 1.8–2.5 × 1.5–2 mm, shiny, smooth. |
included or apex exserted, brownish black, biconvex or 3-gonous, 1.9–3 × 1.5–2 mm, dull, minutely roughened. |
2n | = 20. |
|
Persicaria careyi |
Persicaria hydropiper |
|
Phenology | Flowering Jul–Oct. | Flowering May–Nov. |
Habitat | Low thickets, swamps, bogs, moist shorelines, clearings, recent burns, cultivated ground | Shorelines of lake and ponds, banks of streams and rivers, fens, forested wetlands, pastures, occasionally waste ground |
Elevation | 0-300 m (0-1000 ft) | 0-1500 m (0-4900 ft) |
Distribution |
CT; DE; FL; IL; IN; KY; MA; MD; ME; MI; MN; NH; NJ; NY; OH; PA; RI; VA; VT; WI; NB; ON; QC
|
AK; AL; AR; CA; CO; CT; DC; DE; FL; GA; IA; ID; IL; IN; KS; KY; LA; MA; MD; ME; MI; MN; MO; MS; MT; NC; ND; NE; NH; NJ; NM; NV; NY; OH; OK; OR; PA; RI; SC; SD; TN; TX; UT; VA; VT; WA; WI; WV; WY; BC; MB; NB; NF; NS; ON; PE; QC; SPM; Europe; nw Africa; Pacific Islands (Hawaii, New Zealand); Australia [Introduced in North America; introduced also in Asia]
|
Discussion | An infusion made from entire plants of Persicaria careyi was used by the Potawatomi as a cold remedy and febrifuge (D. E. Moerman 1998). (Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.) |
All parts of Persicaria hydropiper have an acrid, pepperlike taste. The plants have a long history of medicinal use in Europe, and the oily exudate produced in multicellular glands can cause skin irritation, hence the common name smartweed (R. S. Mitchell and J. K. Dean 1978). Some Native American tribes used P. hydropiper as a drug to treat a variety of ailments, and the Cherokee and Iroquois consumed it as food (D. E. Moerman 1998). Herbarium specimens of Persicaria hydropiper often are misidentified as P. punctata. In addition to its minutely roughened and dull achenes, P. hydropiper differs from P. punctata frequently in bearing flowers enclosed in the ocreae, the inflorescences thus appearing somewhat leafy. By contrast, inflorescences of P. punctata generally appear terminal and leafless. (Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.) |
Source | FNA vol. 5, p. 592. | FNA vol. 5, p. 590. |
Parent taxa | Polygonaceae > subfam. Polygonoideae > Persicaria > sect. Persicaria | Polygonaceae > subfam. Polygonoideae > Persicaria > sect. Persicaria |
Sibling taxa | ||
Synonyms | Polygonum careyi | Polygonum hydropiper, Polygonum hydropiper var. projectum |
Name authority | (Olney) Greene: Leafl. Bot. Observ. Crit. 1: 24. (1904) | (Linnaeus) Spach: Hist. Nat. Vég. 10: 536. (1841) |
Web links |
|