Plants of South Eastern New South Wales
Persicaria orientalis
Common name
Princes feathers
Family
Polygonaceae
Where found
Growing from dumped garden refuse, old gardens, moist sites, and in water. Sydney area south to the Nowra district. Occasionally elsewhere.
Notes
Introduced annual herb to 2 m high. Stems densely hairy. Leaves alternating up the stems, 6–22 cm long, 35–120 mm wide, both surfaces with scattered hairs and stalkless glands, stipular sheath (ocrea) hairy, its expanded top part free from the stem, to 7 mm wide, entire. Flowers with 4-5 pale pink to red 'petals', each 2.5–4.5 mm long, free from each other almost to the base. Spikes cylindrical, often drooping, dense, 35–80 mm long, 5–10 mm in diameter.
Treated as native in NSW, and as doubtfully naturalised in Vic.
PlantNET description: http://plantnet.rbgsyd.nsw.gov.au/cgi-bin/NSWfl.pl?page=nswfl&lvl=sp&name=Persicaria~orientalis (accessed 3 April 2021)
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