Ontario
Weeds: Water smartweed
Table of Contents
- Name
- Other Names
- Family
- Terrestrial or dry habitat forms
- Aquatic forms
- Flowers
- Habitat
- Similar Species
- Related Links
Name: Water smartweed, Polygonum amphibium
L.,
Other Names: renouée amphibie,
renouée aquatique, P. natans (Michx.)
Family: Buckwheat or Smartweed Family (Polygonaceae)
Photos and Pictures
Water smartweed. Top of flowering plant.
Terrestrial or dry habitat forms: With
stems erect to nearly prostrate, smooth or more or less hairy; leaves
alternate, lanceolate to oblong, up to 20cm (8in.) long; ocrea membranous
or slightly leaf-like in texture, its outer margin smooth or torn
and either with or without a distinct horizontal, leaf-like flange.
Aquatic forms: Rooting in shallow water
with floating, hairless stems, elliptic leaves and ocreae without
horizontal, leaf-like flanges.
Flowers: Inflorescence of both forms
a compact, ovoid- or conic-cylindric, spike-like raceme, 1-4cm (2/5-1¼in.)
long and 1-1.7cm (2/5-2/3in.) wide, usually blunt; flowers light to
deep pink, without true petals, the coloured sepals 2-5mm (1/12-1/5in.)
long. Both terrestrial and aquatic forms have a thick, lens-lens-shaped,
pale brown to nearly black achene, 2.5mm (1/10in.) long and wide.
Flowers from June to September.
Habitat: Water smartweed is a native
plant in shallow water and along the margins of lakes, ponds, rivers,
creeks and roadside ditches, and persists in depressional areas in
cultivated fields throughout Ontario.
Similar Species: Both terrestrial and
aquatic forms of Water smartweed are distinguished from the closely
related Swamp
smartweed by their short, thick, more or less cylindric inflorescences,
the occasional presence of pubescence and a leaf-like flange on the
ocrea of the terrestrial form, and from most other Smartweeds by having
thick, tough, forking rhizomes.
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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