Persicaria decipiens

 Persicaria decipiens, commonly known as slender knotweed, is a species of flowering plant native to Australia and Asia.[2]

Persicaria decipiens
Persicaria decipiens habit6 Gwydir Wetlands (16570891204).jpg
Scientific classificationedit
Kingdom:Plantae
Clade:Tracheophytes
Clade:Angiosperms
Clade:Eudicots
Order:Caryophyllales
Family:Polygonaceae
Genus:Persicaria
Species:
P. decipiens
Binomial name
Persicaria decipiens
Synonyms[1]
List
    • Persicaria minor subsp. decipiens (R.Br.) Soják
    • Persicaria salicifolia (Brouss. ex Willd.) Assenov
    • Persicaria salicifolia subsp. mambillensis Ayodele
    • Persicaria serrulata (Lag.) Webb & Moq.
    • Persicaria serrulata var. asiatica Nakai
    • Polygonum abyssinicum A.Rich.
    • Polygonum acre Meisn.
    • Polygonum adoense Gand.
    • Polygonum azoricum H.C.Watson ex Meisn.
    • Polygonum decipiens R.Br.
    • Polygonum divaricatum Poir.
    • Polygonum erythropus Dammer
    • Polygonum flaccidum Roxb.
    • Polygonum glabrum Roxb.
    • Polygonum glabrum Roxb. ex D.Don
    • Polygonum leuconeuron Peter
    • Polygonum macrochaetum Miq.
    • Polygonum minus Ten.
    • Polygonum minus subsp. decipiens (R.Br.) Danser
    • Polygonum rapte Ham. ex Hook.f.
    • Polygonum rubicundum Sol. ex Meisn.
    • Polygonum salicifolium Brouss. ex Willd.
    • Polygonum scabrum Poir.
    • Polygonum serrulatoides H.Lindb.
    • Polygonum serrulatum Lag.
    • Polygonum sinuatum R.Br.
    • Polygonum strictum Meisn.

Persicaria decipiens is a trailing plant whose stems grow horizontally at first but become more vertical with time,[3] reaching 30 cm (1 ft) high. Its narrow elliptic to lanceolate (spear-shaped) leaves are 5–12 cm (2–4.5 in) long and 0.5–1.3 cm (0.20–0.51 in) across.[2] The slender pink flower spikes appear from November to June, with a peak in February.[3] Cylindrical in shape, they are not stiff and tend to bend over.[2] The plant tends to die back in winter and regenerate after water.[3]

Persicaria decipiens was among the plants collected by Joseph Banks and Daniel Solander on 5 May 1770 at Botany Bay during the first voyage of Captain James Cook.[4] Prolific Scottish botanist Robert Brown described the species as Polygonum decipiens in his 1810 work Prodromus Florae Novae Hollandiae et Insulae Van Diemen.[5] It was given its current name by Karen Wilson in 1988 as the broadly defined genus Polygonum was split into smaller genera.[4] Common names include slender knotweed, willow weed and snake root.[6]

Flowerhead

P. decipiens is found in water and wet soil. It is found across Africa and the Mediterranean,[6] through southwestern Asia, Malesia and all states of Australia, as well as Norfolk Island, New Zealand and New Caledonia.[2] It has become naturalised in Madagascar.[6]

Likely pollinators of its flowers are insects, including honeybees, native bees, flies, wasps and small butterflies.[3]

Persicaria decipiens is not cultivated but is eaten locally in times of famine in Africa.[6]

This article uses material from the Wikipedia article
 Metasyntactic variable, which is released under the 
Creative Commons
Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License.