Persicaria orientalis

Kiss-me-over-the-garden-gate

Family: Polygonaceae · Type: annual · Not Native

Kiss-me-over-the-garden-gate is a naturalized annual found in the Sacramento Valley and southern Coast Ranges in disturbed places at elevations below 1,500 meters. Flowering from summer to fall, this plant produces pink to dark pink flowers in nodding spike-like clusters up to 18 centimeters long. Growing with erect stems 50 to 200 centimeters tall that are slightly ribbed and nearly hairless, it develops impressive height in disturbed landscapes. Its large ovate leaves measure 4 to 25 centimeters long, with rough midveins and hairy surfaces, featuring distinctive funnel-shaped brown papery sheaths at the leaf base. The fruit is a small, shiny dark brown to black lens-shaped seed about 2 to 3.5 millimeters wide.

Habitat: Escaped from cultivation in disturbed places (most likely dispersed by birds)

Elevation: < 1500 m

Bioregions: ScV, SCoRO

Data from The California Species Project — 14,000+ California species with verified data from CNPS, CDFW, USFWS, Jepson eFlora, Cal-IPC, and more.