Ontario
Weeds: Swamp smartweed
Table of Contents
- Name
- Other Names
- Family
- General Description
- Flowers and Fruit
- Habitat
- Similar Species
- Related Links
Name: Swamp smartweed, Polygonum coccineum
Muhl.,
Other Names: renouée écarlate,
persicaire des marais
Family: Buckwheat Or Smartweed Family (Polygonaceae)
General Description: Perennial, reproducing
by seed and by rhizomes that root abundantly from the nodes. Like
Water smartweed, Swamp smartweed also occurs in two forms: terrestrial
and aquatic. The two smartweeds are very similar and nearly impossible
to distinguish from each other before flowering, except that Swamp
smartweed never has a leaf-like flange at the top of its ocrea.
Photos and Pictures
Swamp smartweed. Underground rhizome with 1 flowering shoot
and 1 vegetative shoot.
Flowers & Fruit: The inflorescence
is also a spike-like raceme but is usually longer and narrower than
that of Water smartweed, the terminal raceme being 2-18cm (4/5-7in.)
long and 7-15mm (¼-3/5in.) wide, and less compact than that of
Water smartweed; flowers are scarlet to pink or rarely white. Both the
terrestrial and aquatic forms have lens-shaped, dark brown to black
achenes, 2.3-3mm (1/10-1/8in.) long and wide. Flowers from July to September.
Habitat: Like Water smartweed, Swamp smartweed
is also a native plant and occurs in similar habitats throughout Ontario.
Similar Species: It is distinguished from
the terrestrial form of Water smartweed by never having a leaf-like
flange on its ocrea and from both terrestrial and aquatic forms of Water
smartweed by its longer, thinner inflorescence. It is usually coarser
than Water smartweed.
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Related Links
... on general Weed
topics
... on weed identification, order OMAFRA Publication 505: Ontario Weeds
... on weed control, order OMAFRA Publication 75: Guide To Weed Control
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