Polygonum polygaloides |
Polygonum patulum |
|||||||||||||||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
close-flower knotweed, close-flower knotweed (ssp. confertiflorum), Kellogg's knotweed (ssp. kelloggii), milkwort knotweed, polygala knotweed, whitemargin knotweed |
Bellard's smartweed |
|||||||||||||||||
Habit | Herbs. | Plants green or bluish green, heterophyllous. | ||||||||||||||||
Stems | erect, green, usually divaricately branched, rarely simple, ± wiry, (2–)6–20(–25) cm, glabrous. |
mostly ascending or erect, branched from base, not wiry, 20–80 cm. |
||||||||||||||||
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 7–9 mm, proximal part cylindic, distal part disintegrating into straight fibers; petiole 0.2–1 mm; blade green or bluish green, linear to lanceolate, 25–40 × 4–8 mm, margins flat, apex acute; stem leaves 2–4 times as long as branch leaves; distal leaves abruptly reduced and not overtopping flowers (shorter than or equaling flowers). |
||||||||||||||||
Inflorescences | axillary and terminal, spikelike, subglobose to cylindric; cymes in most axils or crowded distally, 1–3-flowered. |
axillary and terminal, spikelike; cymes aggregated at tips of stems and branches, 1–3-flowered. |
||||||||||||||||
Pedicels | enclosed in ocreae, erect, 0.1–2 mm, sometimes absent. |
enclosed in ocreae, 1.5–2 mm. |
||||||||||||||||
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 or semi-open; perianth 2.2–3 mm; tube 15–30% of perianth length; tepals overlapping, green with white to pink margins, petaloid, not keeled, oblong, cucullate; veins branched; stamens 8. |
||||||||||||||||
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. |
slightly exserted from perianth, light brown to dark brown, ovate, 3-gonous, 2–2.3(–2.8) mm, faces subequal, concave, apex not beaked, edges concave, dull, striate-tubercled; late-season achenes uncommon, 2.5–4 mm. |
||||||||||||||||
Polygonum polygaloides |
Polygonum patulum |
|||||||||||||||||
Phenology | Flowering Jul–Oct. | |||||||||||||||||
Habitat | Waste places | |||||||||||||||||
Elevation | 0-800 m (0-2600 ft) | |||||||||||||||||
Distribution |
AZ; CA; CO; ID; MT; NM; NV; OR; UT; WA; WY; AB; BC; SK
|
AL; IL; WA; Eurasia; n Africa [Introduced in North America] |
||||||||||||||||
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.) |
The name Polygonum patulum has been misapplied to a distinctive form of P. ramosissimum in saline marshes in California (M. Costea and F. J. Tardif 2003b). (Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.) |
||||||||||||||||
Key |
|
|||||||||||||||||
Source | FNA vol. 5, p. 565. | FNA vol. 5, p. 560. | ||||||||||||||||
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) | M. Bieberstein: Fl. Taur.-Caucas. 1: 304. (1808) | ||||||||||||||||
Web links |
|