Flora of North America species comparison

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Persicaria wallichii

Persicaria sect. Rubrivena

garden knotweed, garden smartweed, Himalayan knotweed, Kashmir plume
Stems

erect, branched distally, unarmed.
Leaves

ocrea chartaceous or coriaceous proximally and chartaceous distally, margins eciliate;

petiole not winged, not auriculate;

blade without dark triangular or lunate blotch adaxially, lanceolate to elliptic-lanceolate, base cordate to truncate, margins entire.
Inflorescences

mostly terminal, sometimes also axillary, paniclelike, interrupted.
Flowers

heterostylous, articulation not swollen;

perianth rotate;

tepals 5, connate less than 1/5 their length;

stamens 8;

styles deciduous, 3, included, spreading.

Persicaria wallichii

Persicaria sect. Rubrivena
Distribution
from FNA
CA; MA; OR; BC; Asia
[WildflowerSearch map]
[BONAP county map]
Asia [Introduced in North America]
Discussion

Varieties 2 (1 in the flora).

Persicaria wallichii is an ornamental that escapes infrequently in the flora area. A population in Nova Scotia apparently was ephemeral. Plants with leaf blades sparsely to densely pubescent abaxially and pedicels glabrous are var. wallichii, to which naturalized North American plants appear to be referable. Plants with leaf blades brownish-tomentose abaxially and pedicels usually pubescent are var. tomentosa S. P. Hong, which may be in cultivation in North America.

(Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.)

Species 2 (1 in the flora).

The status of sect. Rubrivena has been controversial; its members have been included in six different genera. Herbarium specimens often are identified as Polygonum polystachyum or Aconogonon polystachyum. Hong S. P. (1993) cited morphological and anatomical evidence for including Rubrivena in Persicaria as sister to sect. Cephalophilon, also noting pollen and inflorescence characters that distinguish it from Aconogonon.

(Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.)
Source FNA vol. 5, p. 581. FNA vol. 5, p. 580.
Parent taxa Polygonaceae > subfam. Polygonoideae > Persicaria > sect. Rubrivena Polygonaceae > subfam. Polygonoideae > Persicaria
Sibling taxa
P. amphibia, P. arifolia, P. bicornis, P. bungeana, P. capitata, P. careyi, P. chinensis, P. glabra, P. hirsuta, P. hydropiper, P. hydropiperoides, P. lapathifolia, P. longiseta, P. maculosa, P. meisneriana, P. minor, P. nepalensis, P. orientalis, P. pensylvanica, P. perfoliata, P. punctata, P. robustior, P. sagittata, P. setacea, P. virginiana
Subordinate taxa
P. wallichii var. wallichii
Synonyms Polygonum polystachyum, Aconogonon polystachyum, Pleuropteropyrum polystachyum, Reynoutria polystachya, Rubrivena polystachya section Rubrivena
Name authority Greuter & Burdet: Willdenowia 19: 41. (1989) (M. Král) S. P. Hong: Pl. Syst. Evol. 186: 112. (1993)
Web links 
Unless otherwise noted, all data comes from the online version of the Flora of North America, who have made most of their content available via a Creative Commons license (CC BY 4.0).



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