Polygonum polygaloides |
Polygonum fowleri |
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close-flower knotweed, close-flower knotweed (ssp. confertiflorum), Kellogg's knotweed (ssp. kelloggii), milkwort knotweed, polygala knotweed, whitemargin knotweed |
Fowler's knotweed, Hudsonian knotweed |
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Habit | Herbs. | Plants green, sometimes purple tinged, homophyllous or heterophyllous, sometimes subsucculent. | ||||||||||||||||||||
Stems | erect, green, usually divaricately branched, rarely simple, ± wiry, (2–)6–20(–25) cm, glabrous. |
prostrate to ascending, sometimes zigzagged, branched from base, not wiry, 5–50 cm. |
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Leaves | uniformly distributed, articulated to ocreae, basal leaves often caducous, distal leaves abruptly reduced to bracts; ocrea 4–8 mm, glabrous, proximal part cylindric, distal part silvery, with inconspicuous veins, lacerate; petiole absent; blade 3-veined, lateral veins sometimes inconspicuous, without pleats, narrowly linear, 10–40 × 1–2.5 mm, margins ± revolute, smooth, apex acute or mucronate. |
ocrea 2.5–12 mm, proximal part funnelform, distal part soon disintegrating, nearly completely deciduous or fibers persistent; petiole 2–7 mm; blade light green, sometimes purple tinged, elliptic to elliptic-obovate or obovate, 8–30(–50) × 4–15(–25) mm, margins flat, apex acute to obtuse; middle stem leaves 1.1–2.1(–3.4) times as long as adjacent branch leaves, distal leaves overtopping flowers. |
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Inflorescences | axillary and terminal, spikelike, subglobose to cylindric; cymes in most axils or crowded distally, 1–3-flowered. |
axillary; cymes uniformly distributed, 1–7(–10)-flowered. |
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Pedicels | enclosed in ocreae, erect, 0.1–2 mm, sometimes absent. |
enclosed in or sometimes exserted from ocreae, 1–2.5 mm. |
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Flowers | mostly closed; perianth 1.5–3 mm; tube 19–40% of perianth length; tepals overlapping, uniformly white, pink, or red, petaloid, oblong-lanceolate, ± navicular, apex acute to acuminate; midveins usually unbranched or with 2 lateral branches proximally, moderately to strongly thickened, tepals appearing ± keeled; stamens 3–8. |
closed; perianth (2.2–)2.5–4.5 mm; tube 23–38% of perianth length; tepals initially overlapping, pushed apart as achene develops, green, margins white to pink, petaloid, not keeled, oblong, cucullate; midveins branched, sometimes not visible; stamens 6–8. |
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Achenes | enclosed in perianth, light yellow, light brown, or greenish brown to dark brown, ovate to lanceolate, 1.3–2.5 mm, faces subequal, shiny or dull, smooth or reticulate with longitudinal ridges. |
exserted from perianth, brown to dark brown, broadly ovate to ovate-lanceolate, (2–)3-gonous, (1.8–)2–3.7(–4.5) mm, faces subequal or unequal, flat to concave, apex beaked, edges strongly concave, shiny to dull, roughened, rarely obscurely tubercled; late-season achenes common, 4–6 mm. |
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Polygonum polygaloides |
Polygonum fowleri |
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Distribution |
AZ; CA; CO; ID; MT; NM; NV; OR; UT; WA; WY; AB; BC; SK
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AK; CA; ME; OR; WA; BC; MB; NB; NS; NT; NU; ON; PE; QC; YT
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Discussion | Subspecies 4 (4 in the flora). J. C. Hickman’s (1993c) treatment of the Polygonum polygaloides complex is provisionally accepted here. Most of the intermediate specimens occur between subspp. confertiflorum, esotericum, and kelloggii. Alternatively, P. polygaloides could be recognized in the narrow sense and the three other taxa could be treated as subspecies of a separate P. kelloggii, the earliest available binomial. (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. 565. | FNA vol. 5, p. 554. | ||||||||||||||||||||
Parent taxa | Polygonaceae > subfam. Polygonoideae > Polygonum > sect. Duravia | Polygonaceae > subfam. Polygonoideae > Polygonum > sect. Polygonum | ||||||||||||||||||||
Sibling taxa | ||||||||||||||||||||||
Subordinate taxa | ||||||||||||||||||||||
Name authority | Meisner: in A. P. de Candolle and A. L. P. P. de Candolle, Prodr. 14: 101. (1856) | B. L. Robinson: Rhodora 4: 67, plate 35, figs. 14, 15. (1902) | ||||||||||||||||||||
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