PERSICARIA SENEGALENSIS

Family and Genus:- See- POLYGONACEAE/Sect. PERSICARIA

Common Names:- None

Homotypic Synonyms:- Persicaria lanigerum

Meaning:- Persicaria (Gr) Peach-like, reference to the leaves.

Senegalensis (L) From Senegal, W Africa.

General description:- Villous (covered with long, shaggy hairs) perennial

Stems:-

1) 80-200 cm, erect, stout, rooting at lower nodes.

Leaves:-

1) 10-25 x 2-6 cm, shortly petiolate, lanceolate to ovate-lanceolate, cuneate a the

base, acuminate, densely white-hairy especially beneath.

Flowers:-

1) In slender, dense spikes up to 7 cm. pink

Fruit:-

1) Nut, lenticular, glossy.

Click here for a glossary of terms used

Habitat:- Cultivated ground, waste places, river-gravels and beside lakes and

ponds. 0-1100(-1400) m.

Distribution:- Native of tropical Africa, cultivated as an ornamental and sometimes

casual in Crete and Rhodes. On Crete previously only known near the

archaeological site of Phaistos in the South where it has become naturalised.

There has recently (2020) been a discovery made by Giorgos Danas at Lake

Agias, Hania.

Flowering time:- May-July

Photos by:- Giorgos Danas