Persicaria capitata (Buch.-Ham. ex D. Don) H. Gross

Pinkhead Smartweed

Herb

Annual

Vascular

Pinkhead Smartweed is an introduced evergreen herbaceous perennial in the Buckwheat family (Polygonaceae). It is native to Bhutan, China, India, Malaysia, Myanmar, Nepal, Sri Lanka, Thailand, and Vietnam. It is sometimes cultivated as an ornamental ground cover in Alabama and has been reported as an escape in low urban woodlands. Pinkhead Smartweed is a creeping evergreen perennial. The stems are much branched, root at the nodes, and are glabrous to sparsely glandular pubescent. The leaves are alternate, petiolate, glandular pubescent on both surfaces, ovate in outline, glandular hairy along the entire margins, with a large angled blackish bar on the upper surface. The ocrea is tubular, membranous, sparsely glandular pubescent, and ciliate along the margin. Flowers are produced in capitate terminal inflorescences. Individual flowers have a 5-parted white to pinkish perianth, 3 styles, and 8 stamens. The fruit is a black, shiny, 3-angled achene enclosed by the persistent perianth. This species has become invasive in Australia, Ireland, South Africa, Taiwan, and the United States. It spreads both vegetatively and by seed. It is widely used in China for the treatment of various urologic disorders.—A. Diamond.

First collected in Alabama by Alvin Diamond in 2020 from Montgomery County.

Not Native

Diamond, A.R. and B.R. Keener. 2021. Three non-native vascular plant species new to the flora of Alabama. Castanea 86(2) 273-277.