''Persicaria hydropiperoides'' is a New World species of flowering plant in the
buckwheat family
The Polygonaceae are a family of flowering plants known informally as the knotweed family or smartweed—buckwheat family in the United States. The name is based on the genus ''Polygonum'', and was first used by Antoine Laurent de Jussieu in 1789 ...
known by the common names swamp smartweed and false waterpepper. It is widespread across much of North America and South America.
[Cowan, C. P. 1983. Flora de Tabasco. Listados Florísticos de México 1: 1–123.] It grows in moist and wet habitats, and is sometimes
semi-aquatic
In biology, semiaquatic can refer to various types of animals that spend part of their time in water, or plants that naturally grow partially submerged in water. Examples are given below.
Semiaquatic animals
Semiaquatic animals include:
* Verte ...
.
''Persicaria hydropiperoides'' is quite variable and is sometimes divided into several varieties, some of which may be better treated as species in their own right.
[Flora of North America, (Michaux) Small, 1903. Swamp smartweed, renouée faux-poivre-d'eau ]
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In general, ''Persicaria hydropiperoides'' is a rhizomatous perennial herb growing upright or erect and approaching a maximum height of one meter (40 inches). Roots may emerge from nodes on the lower stem. The bristly lance-shaped leaves are around 10 centimeters (4 inches) long. The leaves have sheathing stipules known as ochrea. The spikelike inflorescence produces many pinkish flowers each about 3 millimeters wide.[
]
References
External links
Jepson Manual TreatmentCalphotos Photo gallery, University of Californiaphoto of herbarium specimen at Missouri Botanical Garden, collected in Peru in 2012
hydropiperoides
Flora of North America
Flora of South America
Plants described in 1803
Natural history of the California chaparral and woodlands
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