Question: Could this be Persicaria setacea? The leaves have blotches like P. maculosa, but the flowers are white-ish. I didn't get …
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Question
Could this be Persicaria setacea? The leaves have blotches like P. maculosa, but the flowers are white-ish. I didn't get a good picture of the stipule, but I took a small sample home and it seems more bristly/hairy than fringed. Does P. setacea have blotches on the leaves? This is growing on the edge of a pond in Dedham Town Forest where it would normally be very close to submerged in non-drought times, about 200 feet from I-95 South.
Answer
Dear stephradner, while I can't identify your smartweed with confidence (without additional close-up images of the flowers and stipules), it is likely Persicaria maculosa (lady's-thumb smartweed). While the inflorescence is rather small for this species, such a display is not uncommon in habitats that are less than ideal for this species. There are only a few species that routinely show the blotches on the leaves, but P. setacea is not one of them. Best wishes.
