Swamp Smartweed
Description:
A terrestrial or aquatic
plant with tiny, deep pink flowers in slender, elongated or narrowly
egg-shaped, terminal, spike-like clusters.
Flowers:
About 1/8" long;
calyx 5-parted; petals absent; cluster 1 1/2-7" long.
Those, of terrestrial
or aquatic plants to 8" long, lanceolate, tapering at both ends,
with encircling sheath at axil (young shoots usually very hairy); those
of aquatic plants to 6" long, floating, thin, lanceolate-ovate, with
a rounded or heart-shaped base (young shoots smooth).
Fruit:
Seed-like, dark brown or
black, lens-shaped.
Height:
Terrestrial plants 2-3';
aquatic plants with stems to 4' long, flower clusters to 3" above
water.
Flowering:
July-September.
Habitat:
Shorelines, wet prairies,
swamps, ponds, and quiet streams.
Comments:
This aquatic or wetland
plant is rather showy when growing in colonies. The genus name is from
the Greek poly ("many") and gona ("knee"
or "joint"), as is the family name, and refers to the sheath
often surrounds the stem at the leaf axil. The genus includes the smartweeds,
with tiny flowers in terminal spikes, and the knotweeds, with flower clusters
in the leaf axils.