Scientific name: Persicaria amphibia (L.) Gray
Common name: Amphibious Bistort
Description
Habit: A perennial of very varying habit, to 60 cm high.
Stems: Erect, slightly hairy, with a long rhizome rooting at nodes when on dry land.
Leaves: Basal or alternate, undivided, up to 15 cm long, untoothed, triangular-lanceolate; lower stem leaves with stalk up to 2 cm long; aquatic leaves floating and hairless; stipules whitish or brown, united to form a sheath surrounding stem or leaf stalk.
Flowers: Pink, actinomorphic, numerous in simple, erect, branched terminal spikes 2-4 cm long; tepals 5, free, not winged; stamens 8; ovary superior, 1-celled, style 1, divided into 2.
Fruits: A small nut, 3-angled or 3-winged.
Habitat: Turloughs, lake-margins, marshes and wet grassland.Distribution: Very frequent and locally abundant in some areas, occasional elsewhere.
Native status: Native
Of conservation interest: No