General: Perennial herb from a rhizome or stolon; stems prostrate and freely rooting to ascending, several, simple, with erect tips and flowering branches up to 30-80 cm tall/long.
Leaves: Basal leaves lacking; stem leaves lanceolate to egg-shaped, usually floating, smooth above, hairy to smooth below, the blades 5-15 cm long, the stalks up to 1/2 as long as the blades; stipules smooth to hairy, cylindric, 1-2 cm long.
Flowers: Inflorescence of 1 or 2 terminal or subterminal, spikelike panicles, 1-8 cm long, 1-2 cm wide; perianths scarlet to rose, 4-5 mm long, 5-lobed.
Fruits: Achenes, lens-shaped, brown to black, smooth, shiny or sometimes dull, 2.5-3 mm long.
Notes: Two intergrading varieties occur in BC:
1. Stalks usually glandular-hairy; inflorescence usually at least 4 cm long, cylindric................... var. emersa Michx.
1. Stalks usually smooth; inflorescence rarely 4 cm long, egg-shaped.................... var. stipulacea (Coleman) Fern.
Wet shorelines, ditches and shallow water in the lowland, steppe and montane zones; var. emersum - infrequent in S BC, rare northward to NE BC, var. stipulaceum - common throughout BC; N to AK, YT and NT, E to NF and S to FL, TX and CA.
Ecological Framework for Persicaria amphibia var. stipulacea
The table below shows the species-specific information calculated from original data (BEC database) provided by the BC Ministry of Forests and Range. (Updated August, 2013)