Persicaria pubescens

• Interesting Facts
• Common Names
• Description
• Taxonomy
• Similar Species
• More Info
• Further Reading
• Notes

Interesting Facts

Common Names

Description

Family Polygonaceae

Herbs, shrubs , or small trees , sometimes monoecious or dioecious. Stems erect , prostrate , twining , or scandent , often with swollen nodes, striate , grooved , or prickly. Leaves simple , alternate, rarely opposite or whorled , petiolate or subsessile ; stipules often united to a sheath (ocrea) . Inflorescence terminal or axillary , spicate , racemose, paniculate , or capitate. Pedicel occasionally articulate . Flowers small, actinomorphic , bisexual , rarely unisexual . Perianth 3-6-merous, in 1 or 2 series, herbaceous, often enlarged in fruit or inner tepals enlarged, with wings , tubercles , or spines. Stamens usually (3-) 6-9, rarely more; filaments free or united at base ; anthers 2-loculed, opening lengthwise; disk annular (often lobed ) . Ovary superior, 1-loculed; styles 2 or 3, rarely 4, free or connate at lower part. Fruit a trigonous , biconvex , or biconcave achene; seed with straight or curved embryo and copious endosperm.

About 50 genera and 1120 species: worldwide, but primarily N temperate with a few species in tropical regions ; 13 genera (two endemic) and 238 species (65 endemic) in China.[1]

Genus Persicaria

Herbs, perennial or annual (sometimes suffrutescent in P. wallichii) ; taprooted or fibrous-rooted; sometimes rhizomatous or stoloniferous . Stems erect or, sometimes, prostrate or scandent , simple or branched, glabrous or pubescent , rarely with recurved prickles. Leaves deciduous, mostly cauline, alternate, petiolate or sessile; ocrea persistent or disintegrating with age and deciduous entirely or distally, usually tan, brown, or reddish, chartaceous or partially to entirely foliaceous , rarely coriaceous proximally and chartaceous distally, glabrous or scabrous to variously pubescent, never 2-lobed distally; blade lanceolate or ovate to hastate or sagittate , margins entire or, rarely, hastately lobed . Inflorescences terminal or terminal and axillary , spikelike, paniclelike, or capitate; peduncle present. Pedicels present or absent. Flowers bisexual (often functionally unisexual in P. amphibia and P. hydropiperoides), 1-14 per ocreate fascicle, base not stipelike; perianth white, greenish white, roseate , red, or purple, campanulate or urceolate , rarely rotate, rarely becoming fleshy in fruit, glabrous, sometimes glandular-punctate, accrescent or nonaccrescent; tepals 4-5, connate 1/ 2/ 3 their lengths (less than 5 their lengths in P. wallichii), petaloid , dimorphic , outer larger than inner; stamens 5-8, filaments distinct or connate basally, outer ones sometimes adnate to perianth tube, glabrous; anthers yellow, pink, or red, elliptic to ovate; styles 2-3, erect to spreading or reflexed , distinct or connate; stigmas capitate. Achenes included or exserted, brown or dark brown to black, not winged , discoid , biconvex , 2-3-gonous, or spheroidal , glabrous. Seeds: embryo curved . x = 10, 11, 12.

Species ca. 100: nearly worldwide.

Opinions vary widely about the circumscription and infrageneric classification of Persicaria. The concept employed here generally follows L.-P. Ronse Decraene et al. (2000) and K . Haraldson (1978), with five sections recognized in the flora . Aconogonon and Bistorta, which often are included in Persicaria or in Polygonum in the broad sense, are treated here as separate genera.[2]

Taxonomy

Similar Species

Members of the genus Persicaria

ZipcodeZoo has pages for 45 species, subspecies, varieties, forms, and cultivars in this genus:

P. affinis (Fleeceflower) · P. affinis 'Border Jewel' (Himalayan Fleece Flower) · P. affinis 'Darjeeling Red' (Himalayan Fleece Flower) · P. affinis 'Dimity' (Dimity Fleece Flower) · P. affinis 'Donald Lowndes' (Himalayan Fleece Flower) · P. amphibia (Amphibious Persicaria) · P. amplexicaulis (Mountain Fleece) · P. amplexicaulis 'Alba' (Mountain Fleece) · P. amplexicaulis 'Atrosanguinea' (Mountain Fleece) · P. amplexicaulis 'Dikke Floskes' (Fleece Flower) · P. amplexicaulis 'Fascination' (Red Bistort 'fascination') · P. amplexicaulis 'Firetail' (Mountain Fleece) · P. amplexicaulis 'Inverleith' (Mountain Fleece) · P. amplexicaulis 'JS Caliente' (Red Bistort 'js Caliente') · P. amplexicaulis 'Rosea' (Fleece Flower) · P. amplexicaulis 'Taurus' (Mountain Fleece) · P. attenuata (Smart Weed) · P. bistorta (Bistort) · P. bistorta 'Js Calor' (Common Bistort 'js Calor') · P. bistorta 'Superba' (Superba Bistort) · P. campanulata (Bellflower Smartweed) · P. campanulata 'Alba' (Bellflower Smartweed) · P. chinensis (Chinese Knotweed) · P. lapathifolia lapathifolia (Dock-Leaved Persicaria) · P. lapathifolia pallida (Tomentose Knotgrass) · P. maculosa (Lady´s Thumb) · P. microcephala (Fleece Flower) · P. microcephala 'Red Dragon' (Fleece Flower) · P. microcephala 'Silver Dragon' (Fleece Flower) · P. minor (Minor Smartweed) · P. mollis (Sikkim Knotweed) · P. odorata (Vietnamese Coriander) · P. polymorpha (Giant Fleeceflower) · P. punctata var. tacubayanum (Dotted Smartweed) · P. tenuicaulis (White Fleece Flower) · P. tinctoria (Chinese Indigo Plant) · P. virginiana 'Compton's form' (Compton's Form Virginia Knotweed) · P. virginiana 'Variegata Group' (Jumpseed) · P. virginiana 'Lance Corporal' (Jumpseed) · P. virginiana 'Painter's Palette' (Jumpseed) · P. virginianum 'Painter' (Painter`s Palette Fleeceflower) · P. vivipara (Viviparous Bistort) · P. wallichii (Himalayan Knotweed Persicaria Wallichii) · P. weyrichii (Weyrichs Knotweed) · P. 'October Pink' (Bistort 'october Pink')

More Info

• Search for Pictures: images.google.com
• Search for Scholarly Articles: Google Scholar
• Search using Scientific Name and Vernacular Names: All the Web | AltaVista Canada | AltaVista | Excite | Google | HotBot | Lycos
• Search using Specialized Databases: GenBank | Medline | Scirus | CISTI/CAL | Agricola Periodicals | Agricola Books

Further Reading

• Li Anjen, Kao Tsoching, Mao Zumei & Liu Yulan. 1998. Polygonaceae. In: Li Anjen, ed., Fl. Reipubl. Popularis Sin. 25(1): 1209.

Notes

Contributors

• Brands, S.J. (comp.) 1989-present. The Taxonomicon. Universal Taxonomic Services, Zwaag, The Netherlands. Accessed January 15, 2012.

Data Sources

Accessed through GBIF Data Portal November 15, 2007:

• National Institute of Genetics, ROIS, Herbarium Specimens of Museum of Nature and Human Activities, Hyogo Pref., Japan

Identifiers

• Biodiversity Heritage Library NamebankID: 5924167
• Global Biodiversity Information Facility Taxonkey: 15786610
• Globally Unique Identifier: urn:lsid:ipni.org:names:695122-1
• International Plant Names Index (IPNI) ID: 695122-1
• Zipcode Zoo Species Identifier: 1931055

Footnotes

1. Anjen Li, Bojian Bao, Alisa E. Grabovskaya-Borodina, Suk-pyo Hong, John McNeill, Sergei L. Mosyakin, Hideaki Ohba & Chong-wook Park "Polygonaceae". in Flora of China Vol. 5 Page 277. Published by Science Press (Beijing) and Missouri Botanical Garden Press. Online at EFloras.org. [back]
2. Harold R. Hinds, Craig C. Freeman "Persicaria". in Flora of North America Vol. 5. Oxford University Press. Online at EFloras.org. [back]

©2004-2012 David Stang. All rights reserved.