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Mile-A-Minute Vine
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Mile-A-Minute Vine
ative Photo: Nidhan Singh
Common name: Mile-A-Minute Vine, Mile-a-minute weed, Devil's tail, Giant climbing tearthumb • Manipuri: ꯂꯤꯜꯍꯔ Lilhar • Nepali: घुमाउरो काँडा Ghumaauro Kaandaa, अमिलो पिरे लहरो Amilo Piure Laharo, बाख्रे आँख्ला Baakhre Aankhlaa, फाफ्रे झार Phaaphre Jhaar
Botanical name: Polygonum perfoliatum    Family: Polygonaceae (Knotweed family)
Synonyms: Persicaria perfoliata

Mile-A-Minute Vine is a trailing herbaceous annual vine with barbed stems and triangular leaves. It is native to most of temperate and tropical eastern Asia. It has a reddish stem that is armed with downward pointing hooks or barbs which are also present on the underside of the leaf blades.The light green colored leaves are shaped like an equilateral (equal-sided) triangle and alternate along the narrow, delicate stems. Distinctive circular, cup-shaped leafy structures, called ocreas, surround the stem at intervals. Flower buds, and later flowers and fruits, emerge from within the ocreas. Flowers are small, white and generally inconspicuous. The fruits are attractive, metallic blue and segmented, each segment containing a single glossy, black or reddish-black seed. Mile-A-Minute Vine is found in the Himalayas, at altitudes of 100-2300 m.

Identification credit: Nidhan Singh Photographed in Gori Valley, Uttarakhand.

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