Persicaria longiseta |
Persicaria hydropiper |
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bristly lady's-thumb, oriental lady's thumb, oriental lady's-thumb smartweed |
common smartweed, marsh-pepper smartweed, marshpepper knotweed, mild water-pepper, renouée poivre-d'eau, smartweed, water-pepper, water-pepper smartweed |
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Habit | Plants annual, 3–8 dm; roots also often 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 | decumbent to ascending, branched, without noticeable ribs, glabrous. |
decumbent to ascending or erect, branched, without noticeable ribs, glabrous, glandular-punctate. |
Leaves | ocrea hyaline to brownish, cylindric, 5–12 mm, chartaceous, base sometimes inflated, margins truncate, ciliate with bristles 4–12 mm, surface glabrous or strigose, not glandular-punctate; petiole 0.1–0.3(–0.6) cm, glabrous, leaves sometimes sessile; blade without dark triangular or lunate blotch adaxially, ovate-lanceolate to linear-lanceolate, 2–8 × 1–3 cm, base tapering to cuneate, margins antrorsely strigose, apex acute to acuminate, faces glabrous or sparingly strigose along veins abaxially, glabrous or strigose along midvein and margins adaxially, not glandular-punctate. |
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, sometimes also axillary, erect, uninterrupted, 10–40(–80) × 3–7 mm; peduncle 10–50 mm, glabrous; ocreolae overlapping, margins ciliate with bristles (0.5–)1–4(–6) 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, 1–2 mm. |
ascending, 1–3 mm. |
Flowers | 1–5 per ocreate fascicle, homostylous; perianth pinkish green proximally, roseate distally, glabrous, not glandular-punctate, scarcely accrescent; tepals 5, connate ca. 1/3 their length, obovate, 2.2–2.8 mm, veins not prominent, not anchor-shaped, margins entire, apex obtuse to rounded; stamens 5, included; anthers yellow, elliptic to ovate; styles 3, connate proximally. |
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, 3-gonous, 1.6–2.3 × 1.1–1.6 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. |
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Persicaria longiseta |
Persicaria hydropiper |
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Phenology | Flowering May–Oct. | Flowering May–Nov. |
Habitat | Floodplain forests and woodlands, shorelines of ponds, moist roadsides, waste places | 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 |
AL; CT; DE; FL; GA; IA; IL; IN; KS; KY; LA; MA; MD; ME; MI; MN; MO; MS; NC; NE; NJ; NY; OH; PA; SC; TN; TX; VA; VT; WI; WV; BC; NB; ON; e Asia [Introduced in North America; introduced also in Europe]
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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]
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Discussion | Persicaria longiseta is morphologically similar to another Asian species, P. posumbu (Buchanan-Hamilton ex D. Don) H. Gross (= P. caespitosa). Its spread in the United States since its introduction near Philadelphia in 1910 was summarized by A. K. Paterson (2000). (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 longisetum, P. caespitosa var. longiseta, Polygonum caespitosum var. longisetum | Polygonum hydropiper, Polygonum hydropiper var. projectum |
Name authority | (Bruijn) Kitagawa: Rep. Inst. Sci. Res. Manchoukuo 1: 322. (1937) | (Linnaeus) Spach: Hist. Nat. Vég. 10: 536. (1841) |
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