Mild water-pepper smartweed

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Mild water-pepper smartweed inflorescence

Mild water-pepper smartweed leaves

Mild water-pepper smartweed inflorescence

Mild water-pepper smartweed flowers

Mild water-pepper smartweed leaf

Mild water-pepper smartweed leaves

Mild water-pepper smartweed

Morphology

Stem

Decumbent to ascending, usually branched, mostly glabrous.

Leaves

Mostly cauline, mostly alternate; ocrea brown, cylindric, 1/5 to 1 inch, papery, base inflated, margins truncate, fringed with bristles 1/6 to 2/5 inch, surface glabrous or strigose; petiole to 4/5 inch; blade without dark blotch on upper surface, broadly lanceolate to linear-lanceolate, 2 to 10 inches long, 1/5 to 1 1/2 inch wide, base tapered to acute, margins entire, appressed-pubescent, tip acuminate, surfaces glabrous or appressed-pubescent along midveins and sometimes throughout, usually glandular-punctate abaxially.

Inflorescence

Spike-like or panicle-like, erect, terminal, sometimes also axillary, uninterrupted to interrupted proximally, 1 1/5 to 3 1/5 inch long, 1/12 to 1/5 inch wide; peduncle 2/5 to 1 1/5 inch, glabrous or strigose.

Flower

Pedicels short, ascending. Flowers bisexual or unisexual and staminate, 2--6 per fascicle; perianth pink proximally, pink, white, or greenish white distally, not glandular-punctate or sometimes glandular-punctate on inner tepals; tepals 5, obovate, 1/10 to 1/6 inch in bisexual flowers, 1/16 to 1/10 inch in staminate flowers, veins prominent or not, not anchor-shaped; stamens 8, included or exserted in staminate flowers; styles 3, deciduous, included.

Fruit

Achenes, brown to black, 3-angled, 1/16 to 1/8 inch, shiny, smooth.

Ecology

Habitat

Mud flats in marshes and along shores of ponds and lakes, wet prairies, spring runs.

Distribution

Nearly statewide

Additional Notes

Synonyms

Alternative scientific names that have been used for this plant.