Polygonum polygaloides

Polygonum polygaloides is a North American species of flowering plants in the buckwheat family known by the common names milkwort knotweed and polygala knotweed. It is native to much of western North America, where it can be found in many types of moist habitat. It is a variable species, usually divided into a number of subspecies.

Polygonum polygaloides
P. polygaloides var. confertum [1]
Scientific classification Edit this classification
Kingdom: Plantae
Clade: Tracheophytes
Clade: Angiosperms
Clade: Eudicots
Order: Caryophyllales
Family: Polygonaceae
Genus: Polygonum
Species:
P. polygaloides
Binomial name
Polygonum polygaloides
Synonyms[2]
Synonymy
  • Polygonum polygaloides var. montanum Brenckle
  • Polygonum confertiflorum Nutt. ex Piper
  • Polygonum kelloggii var. confertiflorum (Nutt. ex Piper) Dorn
  • Polygonum watsonii Small
  • Polygonum esotericum L.C. Wheeler
  • Polygonum kelloggii Greene
  • Polygonum minutissimum L.O. Williams
  • Polygonum unifolium Small ex Rydb.

Description

Polygonum polygaloides is an annual herb producing slender, wiry green stems 1 to 30 centimeters (0.4–12 inches) in length. The linear or lance-shaped leaves are alternately arranged uniformly along the stem, the ones near the tips of stem branches highly reduced. The leaves have membranous stipules which fuse to form silvery ochrea at the leaf bases. The flowers are mainly located in clusters around the stem tips. They are white, pink, or red, and most remain closed.[3]

Subspecies

Some sources accept the following as subspecies of Polygonum polygaloides, while others regard all but subsp. polygaloides as belonging to a distinct species, P. kelloggii.[2][3][4][5]

References
  1. photo of herbarium specimen at University of California, Berkeley, collected in Siskiyou County in 2005
  2. The Plant List, Polygonum polygaloides Meisn.
  3. Flora of North America, Polygonum polygaloides Meisner 1856. Polygala knotweed
  4. Biota of North America Program 2014 county distribution map, Polygonum kelloggii
  5. Biota of North America Program 2014 county distribution map, Polygonum polygaloides


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