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beach knotweed, beach or black or dune knotweed, black knotweed, dune knotweed

Habit Shrubs or subshrubs.
Stems

prostrate or ascending, brown, branched, rooting at nodes, not wiry, 10–100 cm, glabrous, covered with remains of lacerate, hyaline ocreae.

Leaves

crowded at branch tips, articulated to ocreae, basal leaves caducous or persistent, distal leaves not reduced in size;

ocrea 15–20 mm, glabrous, proximal part cylindric to funnelform, distal part silvery, entire or slightly lacerate, disintegrating into persistent white-gray curly fibers;

petiole 0–0.5 mm;

blade 1-veined, without pleats, linear to oblanceolate, (5–)10–20(–33) × 3–8 mm, coriaceous, margins revolute, smooth, apex acute or mucronate.

Inflorescences

axillary;

cymes crowded in distal axils, 2–5-flowered.

Pedicels

enclosed in ocreae, erect to spreading, 2–5 mm.

Flowers

semi-open or open;

perianth (4.5–)6–10 mm;

tube 22–48% of perianth length;

tepals partially overlapping, uniformly pink or white, reddish brown when dried, petaloid, oblong-ovate to ± lanceolate, apex rounded;

midveins pinnately branched;

stamens 8.

Achenes

enclosed in or slightly exserted from perianth, black, ovate, 4–5 mm, faces subequal, shiny, smooth.

Polygonum paronychia

Phenology Flowering Mar–Sep.
Habitat Coastal sands, scrub along coast
Elevation 0-50 m (0-200 ft)
Distribution
from FNA
CA; OR; WA; BC
[WildflowerSearch map]
[BONAP county map]
Discussion

Polygonum paronychia may be cultivated in rock gardens in open sites with sandy soil.

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

Source FNA vol. 5, p. 562.
Parent taxa Polygonaceae > subfam. Polygonoideae > Polygonum > sect. Duravia
Sibling taxa
P. achoreum, P. argyrocoleon, P. austiniae, P. aviculare, P. bidwelliae, P. bolanderi, P. californicum, P. cascadense, P. douglasii, P. engelmannii, P. erectum, P. fowleri, P. glaucum, P. heterosepalum, P. hickmanii, P. humifusum, P. majus, P. marinense, P. minimum, P. nuttallii, P. oxyspermum, P. parryi, P. patulum, P. plebeium, P. polygaloides, P. ramosissimum, P. sawatchense, P. shastense, P. spergulariiforme, P. striatulum, P. tenue, P. utahense
Name authority Chamisso & Schlechtendal: Linnaea 3: 51. (1828)
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