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.

Herbs annual. Stems erect, 1-2 m tall, robust, much branched above, densely spreading villous. Petiole 2-10 cm, spreading villous; leaf blade broadly ovate, broadly elliptic, or ovate-lanceolate, 10-20 × 5-12 cm, both surfaces densely pubescent, along veins densely villous, base rounded or subcordate, slightly decurrent, margin densely ciliate, apex acuminate; ocrea tubular, 1-2 cm, membranous, villous, margin truncate, long ciliate, usually with green leaflike wing. Inflorescence terminal or axillary, spicate, slightly pendulous, 3-7 cm, several spikes aggregated and panicle-like; bracts green, broadly funnel-shaped, 3-5 mm, pubescent, margin long ciliate, each 3-5-flowered. Pedicels longer than bracts. Flowers dimorphic. Perianth pink or white, 5-parted; tepals elliptic, 3-4 mm. Stamens 7, exserted. Styles 2, connate to below middle, included or stamens included and styles exserted on separate plant; stigmas capitate. Achenes included in persistent perianth, black-brown, shiny, nearly orbicular, biconcave, 3-3.5 mm. Fl. Jun-Sep, fr. Aug-Oct.

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.

Anhui, Fujian, Gansu, Guangdong, Guangxi, Guizhou, Hainan, Hebei, Heilongjiang, Henan, Hubei, Hunan, Jiangsu, Jiangxi, Jilin, Liaoning, Nei Mongol, Ningxia, Qinghai, Shaanxi, Shandong, Shanxi, Sichuan, Taiwan, Xinjiang, Yunnan, Zhejiang [Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Indonesia, Japan, Korea, Myanmar, Philippines, Russia (Far East), Sri Lanka, Thailand, Vietnam; SW Asia, Australia, Europe].

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.

Roadsides, near houses, wastelands, usually cultivated in gardens; sea level to 3000 m.

Moist waste places; 0-500m.

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

Amblygonum orientale (Linnaeus) Nakai ex T. Mori; A. orientale var. pilosum (Roxburgh ex Meisner) Nakai ex T. Mori; Lagunea cochinchinensis Loureiro; L. orientalis (Linnaeus) Nakai; L. orientalis var. pilosa (Roxburgh ex Meisner) Nakai; Persicaria cochinchinensis (Loureiro) Kitagawa; P. orientalis (Linnaeus) Spach; P. pilosa (Roxburgh ex Meisner) Kitagawa; Polygonum amoenum Blume; P. cochinchinense (Loureiro) Meisner; ?P. orientale var. discolor Bentham; P. orientale var. pilosum (Roxburgh ex Meisner) Meisner; P. pilosum Roxburgh ex Meisner; P. torquatum Bruijn.

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.