Polygonum austiniae

Mrs. austin's knotweed, Mrs. Austin's Knotweed

Family: Polygonaceae · Type: annual · Native

Mrs. austin's knotweed is a California native annual found in the Modoc Plateau bioregion in dry to moist flats on banks, sagebrush plains, and ponderosa-pine forest at elevations of 1,300 to 1,600 meters. Flowering from June to September, this plant produces small green to purple flowers with narrow white-margined perianth segments in spike-like clusters. Growing with ascending to erect stems 5 to 10 centimeters tall, often branching from the base and having a slightly purple-green coloration. Its leaves are small and ovate to elliptic, 5 to 15 millimeters long with papillate-toothed margins and acute tips. The fruit is a shiny black, elliptic to obovate seed approximately 2 to 2.5 millimeters long.

Habitat: dry to moist flats on banks, sagebrush plains, ponderosa-pine forest

Bloom period: Jun-Sep

Elevation: 1300-1600 m

Bioregions: MP

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