Plants of South Eastern New South Wales
Polygonum plebeium
Common name
Small knotweed
Family
Polygonaceae
Where found
Floodplains and temporarily moist sites. Sydney area and ACT. Occasionally tablelands and Western Slopes north and west of the ACT.
Notes
Annual herb, prostrate to sprawling, commonly mat-forming, often reddish-purple. Stems to 15 cm long, often rooting at the nodes, hairless. Young stems minutely warty along the narrow ridges. Leaves alternating along the stems, 0.3-2 cm long, 1-3.5 mm wide, flattish in cross section, hairless, covered with minute warts, with a sheath at the base, margins usually strongly curved down, tips with a straight point. Flowers 1.2–2.5 mm long, pink to white, with 5 'petals' joined at the base, in clusters of 2-5 flowers. Flowers most of year.
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=Polygonum~plebeium (accessed 1 February, 2021)
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