Persicaria wallichii
Persicaria virginiana
garden knotweed, garden smartweed, Himalayan knotweed, Kashmir plume
jumpseed, renouée de virginie
ribbed, glabrous or strigose.
ocrea brownish hyaline, cylindric, 10–20 mm, base inflated or not, margins truncate, ciliate with bristles 0.5–4 mm, surface strigose to tomentose;
petiole (0.1–)1–2 cm, leaves sometimes sessile;
blade 5–17.5 × 2–10 cm, apex acute to acuminate, faces pubescent abaxially, strigose and scabrous adaxially.
(50–)100–350 × 7–15 mm;
peduncle 10–70 mm, pubescent or glabrous distally;
ocreolae not overlapping, margins ciliate with bristles to 3 mm.
ascending to spreading, 0.5–1 mm.
1–3 per ocreate fascicle;
perianth white, greenish white, or rarely pink, glabrous, accrescent;
tepals elliptic to obovate, 2.5–3.5 mm, apex acute to acuminate;
filaments distinct, outer ones sometimes adnate to perianth tube;
anthers yellow or pink, ovate;
styles distinct.
included except for apex and styles, brown to dark brown, biconvex, 3.5–4 × 2–2.8 mm, dull to shiny, smooth to rugose.
= 44.
Persicaria wallichii
Persicaria virginiana
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.)
Tension in the articulation of the pedicels is sufficient to throw mature achenes 3–4 m when the inflorescence is bumped, and the persistent, hooked styles aid in the dispersal of achenes in the fur of animals (H. S. Reed and I. Smoot 1906). A hot infusion of leaves with bark of honey-locust (Gleditsia triacanthos Linnaeus) was used by the Cherokee to treat whooping cough (D. E. Moerman 1998).
(Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.)
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