PINK-HEADED PERSICARIA

Persicaria capitata

(Formerly: Polygonum capitatum)
Dock & Knotweed Family [Polygonaceae]

month8may month8jun month8june month8jul month8july month8aug month8sep month8sept

status
statusZneophyte		 flower
flower8pink		 flower
flower8white		 morph
morph8actino		 petals
petalsZ5		 type
typeZclustered		 type
typeZglobed		 type
typeZtubular		 stem
stem8round		 sex
sexZbisexual

26th May 2019, doorstep of shop, Stansted. Photo: © Leila Riddel
A vulnerable garden escapee - it is not fully hardy, and although we may have global warming, with increasing temperatures, that does not mean that the minimum temperatures will not be as cold as ever. It is found frequently all over the British Isles.


26th May 2019, doorstep of shop, Stansted. Photo: © Leila Riddel
With muddy-green coloured leaves with large darker-green chevrons it can look similar to some species of Cyclamen to some, but the flowers are totally different, here they are in tiny globular clusters.


26th May 2019, doorstep of shop, Stansted. Photo: © Leila Riddel
The individual flowers in the globular cluster are pink but can also be white. The stems bearing leaves are thick and with characteristic Knotweed nodes every so often. It is a spreading sprawling plant, which can take root at any node, so is able to cover large areas without running out of nutrients. The hairs are glandular.


21st Oct 2019, inside a (used) canal lock, Rochdale canal, M/cr. Photo: © RWD
It is a perennial which sprawls over convenient surfaces, here a vertical wall inside a canal lock, although it is supposed to be decumbent. This is on the Rochdale canal through Manchester and although narrow boats do ply this canal, they are not frequent, even less so in winter! [The black pipe going across the lock will be well above head height when the lock is entered or exited from this end, for this is the bottom end]


21st Oct 2019, inside a (used) canal lock, Rochdale canal, M/cr. Photo: © RWD


21st Oct 2019, inside a (used) canal lock, Rochdale canal, M/cr. Photo: © RWD


21st Oct 2019, inside a (used) canal lock, Rochdale canal, M/cr. Photo: © RWD
The leaves are ovate-elliptic with an acute tip and a cuneate base. The reddened leaves seem to lose their chevron.


21st Oct 2019, inside a (used) canal lock, Rochdale canal, M/cr. Photo: © RWD


21st Oct 2019, inside a (used) canal lock, Rochdale canal, M/cr. Photo: © RWD
Shortly-hairy leaf edges.


21st Oct 2019, inside a (used) canal lock, Rochdale canal, M/cr. Photo: © RWD
There are 5 pink or white petals


21st Oct 2019, inside a (used) canal lock, Rochdale canal, M/cr. Photo: © RWD
Where the leaf joins the stem are curious tiny leafy projections (Bottom Left and Top Right just beneath the flower).


21st Oct 2019, inside a (used) canal lock, Rochdale canal, M/cr. Photo: © RWD
Even the green leaves are red-edged, with a large blackened chevron on and curved but 'parallel' veins. The leaf stalks are decurrent (gradually merge with the stem). The hairs on the leaf surface emerge from tiny red pimples (aka glands). The chevrons are nearly black ("what's a chevron?" the driver asked your Author as he was driving over dozens of them along the motorway). The stems are densely glandular hairy.


21st Oct 2019, inside a (used) canal lock, Rochdale canal, M/cr. Photo: © RWD
The leaves too are densely glandular hairy.

With its leaves possessing chevrons it exhibits some similarities to larger leaved Clovers but the leaves are not in three's on Pink-headed Persicaria.

Slight resemblance to : some Sowbreads (aka Cyclamen) such as Eastern Sowbread but the flowers hang upside down on cyclamen, are not in globular clusters, are much larger with 5 large petals reflexed upwards and arranged like a ships' propeller.

It is a casual neophyte garden escapee which is said to be not fully hardy in Britain, but global warming might be on its side in this matter. It is from the Himalayas but is naturalised over much of the British Isles.

  Persicaria capitata  ⇐ Global Aspect ⇒ Polygonaceae  

Distribution
family8Dock & Knotweed family8Polygonaceae
 BSBI maps
genus8Persicaria
Persicaria
(Knotweeds)

PINK-HEADED PERSICARIA

Persicaria capitata

(Formerly: Polygonum capitatum)
Dock & Knotweed Family [Polygonaceae]