Polygonum aviculare

Plants green or bluish green, green after drying, sometimes whitish from powdery mildew, homophyllous or heterophyllous. Stems prostrate to erect, branched, flexuous, 5–200 cm. Leaves: ocrea 3–15 mm, proximal part cylindric or ± funnelform, distal part silvery, hyaline, soon disintegrating into persistent fibers or nearly completely deciduous; petiole 0.3–9 mm; blade green to gray-green, narrowly elliptic, lanceolate, elliptic, obovate, or spatulate, 6–50(–60) × 0.5–22 mm, margins flat, apex acute, obtuse, or rounded; stem leaves 1–4 times as long as adjacent branch leaves; distal leaves overtopping flowers. Inflorescences axillary; cymes uniformly distributed or aggregated at tips of stems and branches, 1–6(–8)-flowered. Pedicels enclosed in or exserted from ocreae, 1.5–5 mm. Flowers closed or semi-open; perianth 1.8–5.5 mm; tube 20–57% of perianth length; tepals overlapping or not, green or reddish brown with white, pink, or red margins, petaloid, not keeled, oblong to obovate, often cucullate in fruit; midveins branched or unbranched, thickened or not; stamens 5–8. Achenes enclosed in or exserted from perianth, light to dark brown, ovate, (2–)3-gonous, 1.2–4.2 mm, faces subequal or unequal, apex not beaked, edges slightly concave, dull, usually coarsely striate-tubercled, sometimes obscurely tubercled; late-season achenes common or not, 2–5 mm.

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Polygonum Aviculare

Polygonum aviculare

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