The Polygonaceae are a family of flowering plants known informally as the knotweed family or smartweed—buckwheat family in the United States. The name is based on the genus Polygonum, and was first used by Antoine Laurent de Jussieu in 1789 in his book, Genera Plantarum. The name may refer to the many swollen nodes the stems of some species have, being derived from Greek [poly meaning 'many' and gony meaning 'knee' or 'joint']. Alternatively, it may have a different origin, meaning 'many seeds'.
Reynoutria japonica, synonyms Fallopia japonica and Polygonum cuspidatum, is a species of herbaceous perennial plant in the knotweed and buckwheat family Polygonaceae. Common names include Japanese knotweed and Asian knotweed. It is native to East Asia in Japan, China and Korea. In North America and Europe, the species has successfully established itself in numerous habitats, and is classified as a pest and invasive species in several countries. The plant is popular with beekeepers, and its young stems are edible, making it an increasingly popular foraged vegetable with a flavour described as lemony rhubarb.
A vine is any plant with a growth habit of trailing or scandent stems, lianas, or runners. The word vine can also refer to such stems or runners themselves, for instance, when used in wicker work.
Polygonum is a genus of about 130 species of flowering plants in the buckwheat and knotweed family Polygonaceae. Common names include knotweed and knotgrass. In the Middle English glossary of herbs Alphita, it was known as ars-smerte. There have been various opinions about how broadly the genus should be defined. For example, buckwheat has sometimes been included in the genus as Polygonum fagopyrum. Former genera such as Polygonella have been subsumed into Polygonum; other genera have been split off.
Knotweed is a common name for plants in several genera in the family Polygonaceae. Knotweed may refer to:
Fallopia convolvulus, the black-bindweed or wild buckwheat, is a fast-growing annual flowering plant in the family Polygonaceae native throughout Europe, Asia and northern Africa.
Muehlenbeckia or maidenhair is a genus of flowering plants in the family Polygonaceae. It is native to the borders of the Pacific, including South and North America, Papua New Guinea and Australasia. It has been introduced elsewhere, including Europe. Species vary in their growth habits, many being vines or shrubs. In some environments, rampant species can become weedy and difficult to eradicate.
Reynoutria multiflora is a species of flowering plant in the buckwheat family Polygonaceae native to central and southern China. It is known by the English common names tuber fleeceflower and Chinese (climbing) knotweed. It is known as he shou wu in China and East Asia. Another name for the species is fo-ti, which is a misnomer.
Reynoutria sachalinensis (giant knotweed or Sakhalin knotweed is a species of Fallopia native to northeastern Asia in northern Japan and the far east of Russia.
× Reyllopia is a hybrid genus with a single known species, × Reyllopia conollyana, the Haringey knotweed or railway-yard knotweed. The species is a hybrid between Japanese knotweed and the Russian vine. The only known wild British population was discovered by David Bevan at Railway Fields in 1987.
Fallopia baldschuanica is an Asian species of flowering plant in the knotweed family known by several common names, including Russian-vine, Bukhara fleeceflower, Chinese fleecevine, mile-a-minute and silver lace vine. It is native to Asia, and is growing wild in parts of Europe and North and Central America as an introduced species.
Pteroxygonum is a plant genus in the family Polygonaceae. As of March 2019, two species are recognized. Their native range is from Tibet to southeast China.
Ann P. Conolly (1917–2010) was a British botanist and teacher who contributed to quaternary botany and conducted important early work on the history and spread of Japanese Knotweed in the UK.
Fleeceflower is a common name for genera and species in the subfamily Polygonoideae, and may refer to:
Reynoutria is a genus of flowering plants in the Polygonaceae, also known as the knotweed or buckwheat family. The genus is native to eastern China, Eastern Asia and the Russian Far East, although species have been introduced to Europe and North America. Members of the genus, including R. japonica and its hybrid with R. sachalinensis, are highly invasive plants.
Polygonoideae is a subfamily of plants in the family Polygonaceae. It includes a number of plants that can be highly invasive, such as Japanese knotweed, Reynoutria japonica, and its hybrid with R. sachalinensis, R. × bohemica. Boundaries between the genera placed in the subfamily and their relationships have long been problematic, but a series of molecular phylogenetic studies have clarified some of them, resulting in the division of the subfamily into seven tribes.
Duma is a genus of shrubby flowering plants in the family Polygonaceae, subfamily Polygonoideae. The genus was separated from Muehlenbeckia in 2011. The native range of the genus is Australia.
Tanja Magdalena Schuster is a taxonomist from Austria, and the first Pauline Ladiges Plant Systematics Fellow, holding a joint position with the School of Biosciences, University of Melbourne, Victoria, Australia, and the National Herbarium of Victoria, Royal Botanic Gardens Melbourne. Schuster also worked as curator of the Norton-Brown Herbarium at the University of Maryland, College Park.
