Plants of South Eastern New South Wales

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Persicaria decipiens

Common name

Slender knotweed

Family

Polygonaceae

Where found

Muddy ground, stream and lagoon banks, and shallow water. Widespread.

Notes

Herb to about 0.8 m high or sprawling. Stems hairless. Leaves alternating up the stems, 4–15 cm long, 5–25 mm wide,  often with a purplish blotch near the middle of the upper surface, hairless, margins and main veins with short stiff bristles, stipular sheath (ocrea) with fringing hairs 2–10 mm long. Flowers pink, with 4-5 'petals' each 1.7–3 mm long, free from each other for about two-thirds their length, without oil glands. Spikes cylindrical, slender, rather limp, 2–6 cm long, 2–5 mm in diameter. Flowers summer-autumn.

All native plants on unleased land in the ACT are protected.

PlantNET description:  http://plantnet.rbgsyd.nsw.gov.au/cgi-bin/NSWfl.pl?page=nswfl&lvl=sp&name=Persicaria~decipiens (accessed 29 January, 2021)