Persicaria decipiens

Persicaria decipiens
Scientific classification
Kingdom: Plantae
(unranked): Angiosperms
(unranked): Eudicots
(unranked): Core eudicots
Order: Caryophyllales
Family: Polygonaceae
Genus: Persicaria
Species: P. decipiens
Binomial name
Persicaria decipiens
(R.Br.) K.L.Wilson

Persicaria decipiens, commonly known as slender knotweed, is a species of flowering plant native to Australia and Asia.[1]

Persicaria decipiens is a trailing plant whose stems grow horizontally at first but become more vertical with time,[2] 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.[1] The slender pink flower spikes appear from November to June, with a peak in February.[2] Cylindrical in shape, they are not stiff and tend to bend over.[1] The plant tends to die back in winter and regenerate after water.[2]

Persicaria decipiens was among the swag of plants collected by Joseph Banks and Daniel Solander on 5 May 1770 at Botany Bay during the first voyage of Captain James Cook.[3] Prolific Scottish botanist Robert Brown described the species as Polygonum decipiens in his 1810 work Prodromus Florae Novae Hollandiae et Insulae Van Diemen.[4] It was given its current name by botanist Karen Wilson in 1988 as the broadly defined genus Polygonum was split into smaller genera.[3] Common names include slender knotweed, willow weed and snake root.[5]

Flowerhead

P. decipiens is found in water and wet soil. It is found across Africa and the Mediterranean,[5] through southwestern Asia, Malesia and all states of Australia, as well as Norfolk Island, New Zealand and New Caledonia.[1] It has become naturalised in Madagascar.[5]

Likely pollinators of its flowers are insects, including honeybees, native bees, flies, wasps and small butterflies.[2]

P. decipiens is not cultivated but is eaten locally in times of famine in Africa.[5]

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 New South Wales Flora Online: Persicaria decipiens by Wilson, K.L., Royal Botanic Gardens & Domain Trust, Sydney, Australia.
  2. 1 2 3 4 Benson, Doug; McDougall, Lyn (1999). "Ecology of Sydney Plant Species Part 7a: Dicotyledon families Nyctaginaceae to Primulaceae" (PDF). Cunninghamia 6 (2): 402–508 [484].
  3. 1 2 Wilson, Karen L. (1988). "Polygonum sensu lato (Polygonaceae) in Australia". Telopea 3 (2): 177–82. doi:10.7751/telopea19884806.
  4. ↑ Brown, Robert (1810). Prodromus Florae Novae Hollandiae et Insulae Van Diemen (in Latin). London, United Kingdom: Richard Taylor and Company. p. 420.
  5. 1 2 3 4 Grubben, G. J. H. (2004). Vegetables. Plant Resources of Tropical Africa 2. PROTA. pp. 413–14. ISBN 9789057821479.
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