1. Guides
  2. New York City EcoFlora Volunteer Guide
  3. Jumpseed

Jumpseed

Persicaria virginiana

Summary 4

Persicaria virginiana, also called jumpseed, Virginia knotweed or woodland knotweed is a North American species of smartweed within the buckwheat family. It is unusual as a shade-tolerant member of a mostly sun-loving genus. Jumpseed is a perennial, named for its seeds which can "jump" several feet when a ripe seedpod is disturbed.

At the Garden 5

Jumpseed is commonly found in the Thain Family Forest.

Distribution and habitat 6

Persicaria virginiana has a wide native range throughout most of Eastern North America, from Ontario and Quebec, south to Florida, and west as far as Texas, Nebraska, and Minnesota.

It naturally occurs in full to partial shade, on riverbanks, woods, cliffs, and rocks.

Description 6

Like other Persicaria, jumpseed has alternate leaves, with fine-hairy stipular sheaths (ocrea) with bristle-fringed edges which often turn brownish. Flowers, widely spaced along slender stalks, are white to greenish-white, rarely pink-tinged, and fruiting flowers have 2 downward-pointing hook-tipped styles. Persicaria virginiana is easily distinguished from most other Persicaria species by its much larger, more oval-shaped leaves, although a few species also have large leaves. It sometimes has a chevron-shaped marking on the leaves; often a single plant will have this marking on some leaves but not others.

Cultivars and naturalized populations from cultivation show much greater variation than wild-type plants, sometimes having variagation or have more involved red patterning, and sometimes having red or pink flowers.

Sources and Credits

  1. (c) Lisa Brown, some rights reserved (CC BY-NC), http://www.flickr.com/photos/33695431@N00/3478262612
  2. (c) Kelly L. O'Donnell, some rights reserved (CC BY-NC), uploaded by Kelly L. O'Donnell
  3. (c) anonymous, some rights reserved (CC BY-SA), http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Persicaria_virginiana_01_Pengo.jpg
  4. (c) Wikipedia, some rights reserved (CC BY-SA), http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Persicaria_virginiana
  5. (c) bkmertz, some rights reserved (CC BY-SA)
  6. Adapted by bkmertz from a work by (c) Wikipedia, some rights reserved (CC BY-SA), http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Persicaria_virginiana

More Info

iNat Map

Member of the iNaturalist Network   |   Powered by iNaturalist open source software |   Documentation for developers