Persicaria virginiana
Species of flowering plant in the knotweed family
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Persicaria virginiana, also called jumpseed,[3] Virginia knotweed or woodland knotweed[4] is a North American species of smartweed within the buckwheat family. It is unusual as a shade-tolerant member of a mostly sun-loving genus. Jumpseed is a perennial, named for its seeds which can "jump" several feet when a ripe seedpod is disturbed.
| Persicaria virginiana | |
|---|---|
| |
Scientific classification  | |
| Kingdom: | Plantae |
| Clade: | Embryophytes |
| Clade: | Tracheophytes |
| Clade: | Angiosperms |
| Clade: | Eudicots |
| Order: | Caryophyllales |
| Family: | Polygonaceae |
| Genus: | Persicaria |
| Species: | P. virginiana |
| Binomial name | |
| Persicaria virginiana | |
 | |
| Range within North America | |
| Synonyms[2] | |
Persicaria virginiana blooms in midsummer to late summer/early fall. It has a stalk of small white flowers.[5]
Description
Like other Persicaria, jumpseed has alternate leaves, with fine-hairy stipular sheaths (ocrea) with bristle-fringed edges which often turn brownish. Flowers, widely spaced along slender stalks, are white to greenish-white, rarely pink-tinged, and fruiting flowers have two downward-pointing hook-tipped styles.[4] Persicaria virginiana is easily distinguished from most other Persicaria species by its much larger, more oval-shaped leaves, although a few species also have large leaves. It sometimes has a chevron-shaped marking on the leaves; often a single plant will have this marking on some leaves but not others.
Cultivars and naturalized populations from cultivation show much greater variation than wild-type plants, sometimes having variegation or have more involved red patterning, and sometimes having red or pink flowers.
Distribution and habitat
Persicaria virginiana has a wide native range throughout most of eastern North America (from Ontario and Quebec, south to Florida, and west as far as Texas, Nebraska, and Minnesota/),[3][6][7] as well as Japan and the Himalayas.[8][9]
It naturally occurs in full to partial shade, on riverbanks, woods, cliffs, and rocks.[10]
