Pale Persicaria - Persicaria lapathifolia

Description

Medium tall, slightly hairy plant. Leaves oval to linear-lanceolate, occasionally with pale blackish blotch, with yellowish dots (glands) beneath. Flowers in dense spikes, dull greenish white, sometimes pinkish, stalks with yellowish glands.

Similar Species

Persicaria maculosa

Identification difficulty
ID checklist (your specimen should have all of these features)

Very variable in flower colour, from greenish-white to deep pink, and in hairiness.  Glands frequent on perianth and peduncle; veins of outer tepals divided, with turned back branches. Leaves lanceolate

Recording advice

Photo showing flower and flower stalk with glands

Habitat

Cultivated land, waste places and water margins.

When to see it

June to October.

Life History

Annual.

UK Status

Fairly common and widespread in Britain.

VC55 Status

Fairly common in Leicestershire and Rutland. In the 1979 Flora survey of Leicestershire it was found in 354 of the 617 tetrads.

In the current Checklist (Jeeves, 2011) it is listed as Native, Locally Frequent

Leicestershire & Rutland Map

MAP KEY:

Yellow squares = NBN records (all known data)
Coloured circles = NatureSpot records: 2025+ | 2020-2024 | pre-2020

UK Map

Species profile

Common names
Pale Persicaria
Species group:
Wildflowers
Kingdom:
Plantae
Order:
Caryophyllales
Family:
Polygonaceae
Records on NatureSpot:
31
First record:
07/08/2006 (Calow, Graham)
Last record:
29/09/2024 (Nicholls, David)

Total records by month

% of records within its species group

10km squares with records

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