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.