Polygonum aviculare |
Polygonum sawatchense |
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birdweed, common knotgrass, common knotweed, doorweed, dooryard knotweed, knotgrass, knotweed, lowgrass, pigweed, prostrate knotweed, renouée des oiseaux, yard knotweed |
Johnston's knotweed, knotweed, sawatch knotweed |
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Habit | Plants green or bluish green, green after drying, sometimes whitish from powdery mildew, homophyllous or heterophyllous. | Herbs. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Stems | prostrate to erect, branched, flexuous, 5–200 cm. |
erect, green to brownish, simple or branched from base, not wiry, 4–50 cm, glabrous or papillose-scabrid-ulous. |
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Leaves | ocrea 3–15 mm, proximal part cylindric or ± funnelform, distal part silvery, hyaline, soon disintegrating into persistent fibers or nearly completely deciduous; petiole 0.3–9 mm; blade green to gray-green, narrowly elliptic, lanceolate, elliptic, obovate, or spatulate, 6–50(–60) × 0.5–22 mm, margins flat, apex acute, obtuse, or rounded; stem leaves 1–4 times as long as adjacent branch leaves; distal leaves overtopping flowers. |
uniformly distributed, articulated to ocreae, basal leaves persistent or caducous, distal leaves abruptly or gradually reduced to bracts; ocrea 4–10 mm, glabrous or papillose-scabridulous, proximal part cylindric, distal part lacerate or disintegrating into a few persistent fibers; petiole 0.1–2 mm; blade 1-veined, not pleated, linear or narrowly oblong to oblanceolate, 8–45 × 2–8(–12) mm, margins revolute or flat, smooth or papillose-denticulate, apex acute, mucronate, rarely obtuse. |
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Inflorescences | axillary; cymes uniformly distributed or aggregated at tips of stems and branches, 1–6(–8)-flowered. |
axillary or axillary and terminal, spikelike, elongate; cymes widely spaced along branches, 2–4-flowered. |
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Pedicels | enclosed in or exserted from ocreae, 1.5–5 mm. |
enclosed in or exserted from ocreae, erect, 1–4 mm. |
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Flowers | closed or semi-open; perianth 1.8–5.5 mm; tube 20–57% of perianth length; tepals overlapping or not, green or reddish brown with white, pink, or red margins, petaloid, not keeled, oblong to obovate, often cucullate in fruit; midveins branched or unbranched, thickened or not; stamens 5–8. |
closed or at least some open; perianth (2.5–)4 mm; tube 20–40% of perianth length; tepals overlapping, greenish or reddish, sometimes flushed with purple, with white or pink margins, sepaloid or petaloid, oblong or oblong-elliptic, cucullate, navicular, apex rounded; midveins unbranched or with few branches at base; stamens 3–8. |
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Achenes | enclosed in or exserted from perianth, light to dark brown, ovate, (2–)3-gonous, 1.2–4.2 mm, faces subequal or unequal, apex not beaked, edges slightly concave, dull, usually coarsely striate-tubercled, sometimes obscurely tubercled; late-season achenes common or not, 2–5 mm. |
enclosed in perianth, black, elliptic or ovate, 2.5–3.3 mm, faces subequal, shiny, smooth. |
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Polygonum aviculare |
Polygonum sawatchense |
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Distribution |
AK; AL; AR; AZ; 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; AB; BC; MB; NB; NL; NS; NT; ON; PE; QC; SK; YT; nearly worldwide
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AZ; CA; CO; ID; MT; ND; NE; NM; NV; OR; SD; UT; WA; WY; AB; BC; SK
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Discussion | Subspecies 7+ (6 in the flora). Polygonum aviculare is a taxonomically controversial polyploid complex of selfing annuals. Although members of the complex have been considered inbreeders, they possess some structures that make cross pollination possible. Cleistogamous and chasmogamous flowers, heterostyly, protandry, and the capacity to secrete nectar suggest an ancestral mixed-mating system. Isoenzyme studies showed that the complex has an allopolyploid origin (P. Meerts et al. 1998) and has evolved as a swarm of inbreeding lines (“Jordanons”) (J. Gasquez et al. 1978). The six subspecies included here have been treated variously (T. Karlsson 2000; M. Costea and F. J. Tardif 2003). Complex intergradation patterns among them make their recognition at the species level impractical. Multivariate analysis and isoenzyme studies show that populations with intermediate characteristics may occur (Meerts et al. 1990, 1998). Except for subsp. boreale, which occurs in Greenland and Labrador, all subspecies are partially sympatric and their distributions have been influenced greatly by humans. (Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.) |
Subspecies 2 (2 in the flora). (Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.) |
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Key |
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Source | FNA vol. 5, p. 556. | FNA vol. 5, p. 568. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Parent taxa | Polygonaceae > subfam. Polygonoideae > Polygonum > sect. Polygonum | Polygonaceae > subfam. Polygonoideae > Polygonum > sect. Duravia | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Name authority | Linnaeus: Sp. Pl. 1: 362. (1753) | Small: Bull. Torrey Bot. Club 20: 213, plate 156. (1893) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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