Ontario
Weeds: Wild buckwheat
Table of Contents
- Name
- Other Names
- Family
- General Description
- Stems and Roots
- Leaves
- Flowers and Fruit
- Habitat
- Similar Species
- Related Links
Name: Wild buckwheat, Polvgonum convolvulus
L.,
Other Names: renouée liseron, Black
bindweed, Climbing bindweed, Corn bindweed, faux liseron, sarrasin
sauvage
Family: Buckwheat or Smartweed Family (Polygonaceae)
General Description: Annual, reproducing
only by seed.
Photos and Pictures
Wild buckwheat. A. Base of plant. B. Portion
of stem twining around another stalk. C. Section of stem with leafstalk,
ocrea and 2 flowers.
Stems & Roots: Stems 5 cm (2 in.)
to more than 2 m (6 ½ ft) long, slender, prostrate or twining
vine-like over other plants or any available support, with a short
ocrea (membranous sheath) at each node (joint)
Leaves: Leaves alternate (1 per node),
arrowhead-shaped with pointed basal lobes and elongated slender tips.
Flowers & Fruit: Flowers small,
5 mm (1/5 in.) across, with 5 greenish to whitish sepals (no petals),
in small clusters at tips of short branches or from axils of leaves;
"seeds" dull black, 3 mm (1/8 in.) long, pointed at both
ends but sharply triangular in cross-section and often partly or wholly
enclosed by the dry sepals even after shattering from the plant. Flowers
from July to August.
Habitat: Wild buckwheat is a common
weed in cultivated fields and gardens throughout all of Ontario and
its "seeds" frequently contaminate small grains.
Similar Species: It is distinguished from
all other weedy members of the Smartweed Family by its twining stems,
its arrowhead-shaped leaves, and its seedling usually having longer
cotyledons (7-33mm, ¼-1¼in. long). It is distinguished
from Field bindweed by its annual root system with thin, downward-tapering
taproot, the presence of an ocrea around the stem at each node (joint),
its very small, short-stalked greenish flowers, borne in the axils
of leaves or in clusters along short branches, and its dark, sharply
triangular seeds.
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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