Kiss Me Over The Garden Gate

Persicaria orientalis was introduced as a garden ornamental. It often persists around homesteads and barnyards, and occasionally escapes and becomes weedy in moist waste places. A collection made in 1853 by F. V. Hayden at Fort Pierre, South Dakota (MO), is assumed to have come from a cultivated plant.

Plants annual, 6-25 dm; roots not also arising from proximal nodes; rhizomes and stolons absent. Stems erect, simple or branched distally, usually ribbed, strigose or glabrescent proximally, pilose to hirsute distally. Leaves: ocrea brownish proximally, green distally, narrowly funnelform, 10-20 mm, chartaceous proximally, foliaceous distally, rarely chartaceous throughout, base inflated or not, margins truncate, ciliate with bristles 1-3 mm, surface densely strigose to hispid, not glandular-punctate; petiole 1-8.5(-14) cm, densely pilose to hirsute; blade without dark triangular or lunate blotch adaxially, ovate, 6-25(-30) × 3-17 cm, base cordate to truncate, margins scabrous to ciliate, apex acuminate, faces minutely strigose to densely hirsute, especially along veins abaxially, not glandular-punctate. Inflorescences mostly terminal, nodding or erect, uninterrupted, 10-150 × 8-18 mm; peduncle 20-100 mm, hirsute; ocreolae overlapping, margins ciliate with bristles 0.2-1 mm. Pedicels ascending to spreading, 1-4 mm. Flowers (1-)2-5 per ocreate fascicle, homostylous; perianth roseate to red, glabrous, not glandular-punctate, slightly accrescent; tepals 5, connate in proximal 1/3, obovate, 3-4.5 mm, veins prominent or not, not anchor-shaped, margins entire, apex obtuse to rounded; stamens 6-8, included or exserted; anthers pink or red, elliptic; styles 2, connate proximally. Achenes included, dark brown to black, discoid, 2.5-3.5 × 3-3.5 mm, shiny to dull, smooth to minutely granulate.

Erect, (50-) 100-150 cm high, strigose or hairy, branched, annual herb. Stem branched, densely hairy or rarely glabrous, angular. Leaves 3-20 (-25) x 1-15 cm, ovate, acute-acuminate, entire, hairy all over, sometimes slightly cordate, petiole up to 8.0 cm long. Ochrea 4-20 (-25) mm long, broadly ovate, entire, hirsute to densely hirsute. with a membranous, dilated, herbaceous leaf-like lobe and recurved mouth. Inflorescence 2-15 cm long, moderately dense, terminal, erect, pedunculate branched raceme; peduncle 1-5 cm long, hirsute - hairy. Flowers 1.0-1.5 mm across, sessile, enclosed in ochreolae. Ochreolae 2-5 mm long, ovate, densely hairy. Perianth biseriate, dark pink, tepals 5, 1-2.5 x 1.0-1.5 mm, lanceolate-ovate, obtuse. Stamens 7-8, filaments short unequal, anthers basifixed, up to 1.25 mm long, exserted. Ovary 0.25-0.5 mm, circular, biconvex, with two styles, free for half the length, stigmas capitate. Nuts 2-3 x 1.5-2.5 mm, biconvex with sharp edges, granulate-striate, black.

introduced; N.B., Ont., Que.; Ala., Ark., Calif., Conn., Del., D.C., Fla., Ga., Ill., Ind., Iowa, Kans., Ky., La., Maine, Md., Mass., Mich., Minn., Miss., Mo., Nebr., N.H., N.J., N.Y., N.C., Ohio, Okla., Oreg., Pa., R.I., S.C., Tenn., Tex., Vt., Va., W.Va., Wis.; s Asia (India).

Distribution: Central Asia - Kashmir, Malaya, Japan, China.

Fl. Per.: June-September.

Flowering Jun-Oct.

Moist waste places; 0-500m.

Grows between 800-2500 m, probably naturalized in our region.

Polygonum orientale Linnaeus, Sp. Pl. 1: 362. 1753

Polygonum orientale L., Sp. Pl. 362. 1753; Hook. f., Fl. Brit. Ind. 5: 30. 1886; D.A.Webb & Chater in Tutin et al., Fl. Europ. 1: 80. 1964; Rech. f. & Schiman-Czeika in Rech. f., Fl. Iran. 56: 57. 1968; R.R.Stewart, Ann. Cat. Vasc. Pl. W. Pak. Kashm. 207. 1972; Persicaria pilosum Roxb., Fl. Ind. 2: 286. 1832; P. tibetica Rendle in J. Bot. 428. 1900; Amblyogonum orientale (L.) Nakai in Mori. Enum. Pl. Cor. 192. 1922.

Persicaria orientalis is a species of flowering plant in the family Polygonaceae, known as kiss-me-over-the-garden-gate and princess-feather. It was first described, as Polygonum orientale, by Carl Linnaeus in 1753. It was transferred to the genus Persicaria by Édouard Spach in 1841. Its native distribution is unclear. As of April 2023, Kew’s Plants of The World Online lists it’s native distribution as ranging from the Russian far east too Indochina, Malesia and Australia. It is widely cultivated and naturalized.

Leaf

Stem with ochrea (sheath)

Inflorescence

In cultivation in England