PERSICARIA LAPATHIFOLIUM subsp. LAPATHIFOLIUM

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

Common Names:- Pale persicaria

Homotypic Synonyms:- Polygonum lapathifolium

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

Lapathifolium (L) With sorrel-like leaves.

General description:- Annual, usually branched from the base.

Stems:-

1) 20-60(100) cm, procumbent or erect, simple or branched, sometimes spotted

with red. sometimes swollen at the nodes.

Ochreae:-

1) Entire or very shortly ciliate.

Leaves:-

1) Ovate to linear-lanceolate, acute or obtuse, sometimes with a large, blackish

spot, glabrous or densely tomentose beneath, with pellucid often yellow glands

visible from the lower surface.

Flowers:-

1) Spikes, stout and usually dense.

2) Peduncles, and sometimes also the pedicels and perianth, bearing yellow,

subsessile glands.

3) Perianth, dull pink or greenish-white.

Fruit:-

1) Nut, 2-3 mm, brownish-black, glossy, usually lenticular.

Key features:-

1) Ochreae and petioles, glabrous or sparsely hairy.

2) Spikes, dense and stout, with the flowers crowded and overlapping.

3) Peduncles, bearing numerous subsessile, yellow glands.

4) Perianth, dull pink or greenish-white.

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:- Throughout the Greek mainland and Peloponnisos. Limited

distribution across the Aegean area. Now almost a cosmopolitan weed in

temperate and subtropical regions. Remains rare on Crete and currently known

from only a few locations. Recently 01/09/18 discovered for the first time in the east

of Crete.

Flowering time:- May-Oct

Photos by:- Steve Lenton