Polygonum strigosum R.Br.
Annual herb; stems to > 50 cm long, lax or sprawling, with numerous deflexed scabrid bristles to c. 1 mm long; roots slender. Lvs ± similar; petiole to 1 cm long, filiform, scabrid. Lamina 3-7 × 0.5-1.2 cm, linear-lanceolate; midrib below with scattered bristles; margin ciliolate, entire; base ± hastate or sagittate; apex obtuse or subacute. Ochreae usually 1-1.5 cm long, glabrous, soon brown and papery; apex truncate. Racemes terminal or in axils of upper lvs, to 12 cm long, very slender; fls few, distant. Peduncles dichotomous, conspicuously glandular-hairy, > lvs; pedicels very short, hidden by sheathing, glabrous or glabrate bracts until after anthesis. Perianth 2-3 mm long, accrescent, pink; segments ± broadly ovate-elliptic, imbricate and remaining almost closed, eglandular. Nut 2-2.5 mm long (including short beak), broad-ovoid or ellipsoid, brown, shining.
N.: eastern N. Auckland from the Bay of Islands and Mangonui to the Whangarei area.
E. Australia 1976
Wet places such as swamps, river banks, lakesides and wet pasture, locally common and apparently spreading.
FL Jan-Feb.
P. strigosum is very distinct from other spp. in N.Z. It is, however, very close to P. praetormissum Hook. f. from India which has been erroneously recorded from Australia based on plants of P. strigosum.
