Persicaria punctata

Dotted smartweed

Family: Polygonaceae · Type: perennial · Native

Dotted smartweed is a native perennial herb found in California in shallow water, shores, marshes, and floodplain forest at elevations below 1,500 meters. Flowering from June to November, this plant produces white to green flowers in small clusters 4 to 8 millimeters wide, with delicate pink or red anthers. Growing with ascending to erect stems 15 to 100 centimeters tall that are glabrous and gland-dotted, it spreads through rhizomes. Its lance-shaped leaves are 5 to 10 centimeters long with distinctive cylindric brown ocreae (leaf sheaths) 9 to 18 millimeters long, fringed with bristles 2 to 11 millimeters long. The fruit is a shiny, brown-black, lens-shaped structure 2 to 3.2 millimeters long that is either included within or slightly protruding from the flower.

Habitat: Shallow water, shores, marshes, floodplain forest

Bloom period: Jun-Nov

Elevation: < 1500 m

Bioregions: CA

California counties: Glenn, Kern, Monterey, San Diego, San Luis Obispo, Calaveras, Sonoma, Marin, Amador, Del Norte, Imperial, Fresno, Kings, Los Angeles, Madera, Mariposa, Napa, Nevada, Placer, Plumas, Riverside, Yolo, Yuba, Alameda, Butte, Contra Costa, Lake, Mendocino, Merced, San Bernardino, San Francisco, San Joaquin, San Mateo, Santa Barbara, Santa Clara, Santa Cruz, Solano, Sutter, Tulare, Tuolumne, Ventura, Colusa, Tehama, Shasta, Humboldt, Modoc, Inyo, El Dorado, Sacramento, Mono

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