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Flower spike
Polygonum hydropiper
Common Names: Common
or Water-pepper
smartweed
Family: Polygonaceae
Description: An annual herb with foliage and flowers peppery to the taste
Leaves: Lanceolate (arrow shaped) with serrated edges and a rounded tip; simple leaves, green with a light red hue; 3-8 cm long.
Flowers: Green and usually white margined arranged into a spike, often nodding at tip; or small bright pink to white flowers organized on the reddish stem into racemes.
Seeds: Bears a small, one seeded fruit called an achene; dark brown, 2-3 mm long.
Stem: Often reddish, sometimes rooting at the lower nodes. Erect, usually branched, smooth or slightly hairy
Branching Pattern: Alternate
Height: 30-45 cm tall
Conditions/Habitat/Kind of Forest: Damp soils, low meadows, pastures, floodplains, and cultivated soils
Range: Native to North America and Europe and widespread throughout. All of continental US except southern Georgia and Florida
Conservation Status-US/ World Wide: Common
Uses (Human): Important food source for birds; used as an herbal remedy for a wide variety of ailments
References:
Aquatic and Wetland Vascular Plants of the Northern Great Plains.
February 23, 2005. Northern Prairie Wildlife Research Center.
Accessed: November 29, 2005. <http://www.npwrc.usgs.gov/resource/plants/vascplnt/species/polyhydr.htm>
Chadde, Steve W. A Great Lakes Wetland Flora (2nd
ed.). Michigan: PocketFlora Press, 2002.
Peterson, Roger Tory, and Margaret McKenny. Peterson Field Guides: A field guide to Wildflowers of
Northeastern and Northcentral North America. New York: Houghton
Mifflin Co., 1968.
Plants for a Future. June 2004. Accessed: November 29, 2005. <http://www.pfaf.org/database/plants.php?Polygonum+hydropiper>