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'.
Fallopia is a genus of about 12 species of flowering plants in the buckwheat family, often included in a wider treatment of the related genus Polygonum in the past, and previously including Reynoutria. The genus is native to temperate and subtropical regions of the Northern Hemisphere, but species have been introduced elsewhere. The genus includes species forming vines and shrubs.
Sagittaria is a genus of about 30 species of aquatic plants whose members go by a variety of common names, including arrowhead, duck potato, swamp potato, tule potato, and wapato. Most are native to South, Central, and North America, but there are also some from Europe, Africa, and Asia.
Nuphar is a genus of aquatic plants in the family Nymphaeaceae, with a temperate to subarctic Northern Hemisphere distribution. Common names include water-lily, pond-lily, alligator-bonnet or bonnet lily, and spatterdock.
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.
Sagittaria sagittifolia is an Old World flowering plant in the family Alismataceae.
Muehlenbeckia complexa is a plant commonly known as pohuehue, although this name also applies to some other climbers such as Muehlenbeckia australis.
Muehlenbeckia astonii or shrubby tororaro is an endemic New Zealand shrub in the family Polygonaceae. It has distinctive small heart-shaped deciduous leaves amidst a tangle of wiry interlocking branches. Although common in cultivation around the world, it is extremely rare and threatened in the wild.
Muehlenbeckia platyclada, known as centipede plant, tapeworm plant or ribbonbush, is a species of plant in the knotweed family from New Guinea and the Solomon Islands. It is also naturalized in other tropical regions, including Puerto Rico, India, Bolivia, Madagascar, Nicaragua and Pakistan.
Muehlenbeckia adpressa, commonly known as climbing lignum, is a prostrate or climbing plant, native to Australia. It has thin red-brown stems up to 1 metre in length. The leaves are 1.5–6 centimetres (0.59–2.36 in) long and 1.5–3.5 centimetres (0.59–1.38 in) wide. It occurs in coastal areas of Western Australia, South Australia, Tasmania, Victoria and New South Wales.
Suddia is a genus of plants in the grass family. The only known species is Suddia sagittifolia, which is native to South Sudan in central Africa.
Spathicarpa hastifolia is a species of flowering plants in the family Araceae, endemic to South America.
Muehlenbeckia axillaris is a low evergreen shrub, forming wiry mats up to about 1 metre in diameter, native to New Zealand, and the Australian states of Tasmania, New South Wales and Victoria. It has thin, red-brown stems, with glossy squarish to roundish leaves that are less than 1 cm (0.39 in) in diameter and 2–4 mm (0.079–0.157 in) thick. Flowers are inconspicuous, yellowish-white, 4–8 mm (0.16–0.31 in) in diameter, and borne in groups of up to three in the axils. The fruit is black, shiny, and up to 3.5 mm (0.14 in) long, produced in late summer to fall.
Peltandra sagittifolia is a species of plant in the genus Peltandra. It is commonly known as the spoonflower or the white arrow arum, native to the southeastern United States from eastern Louisiana to eastern Virginia.
Duma florulenta, commonly known as tangled lignum or often simply lignum, is a plant native to inland Australia. It is associated with wetland habitats, especially those in arid and semiarid regions subject to cycles of intermittent flooding and drying out. The Wiradjuri name for the plant is gweeargal, and the Walmajarri name is Kirinykiriny, or Kurinykuriny.
Muehlenbeckia australis, the large-leaved muehlenbeckia or pohuehue, is a prostrate or climbing plant native to New Zealand.
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.
Ipomoea sagittifolia is a species of morning glory in the genus Ipomoea. It is native to Africa, India, the Malay Archipelago, and Australia. It was erroneously reported to occur in Taiwan.
