Scientific name: Persicaria hydropiper (L.) Spach.
Common name: Water-pepper
Description
Habit: Annual, to 75 cm high.
Stems: Erect, branched.
Leaves: Alternate or basal, short-stalked, to 25 cm long, undivided, untoothed, lanceolate, with a peppery taste; stipules whitish or brown, united to form a sheath surrounding stem or leaf stalk.
Flowers: Greenish, actinomorphic, both solitary in the axils of lower leaves, and numerous, slightly nodding, in axillary and terminal slender spikes; tepals 5, free, not winged, with dark and flat glands; stamens 6; ovary superior, 1-celled, style 1, divided into 2 or 3.
Fruits: A small nut, 3-angled or 3-winged, dull black, not shiny, 3 mm long.
Habitat: Marshes, ditches, riverbanks, turloughs, rarely on roadsides and cultivated ground.Distribution: Local.
Native status: Native
Of conservation interest: No