Botanical name: Persicaria orientalis    Family: Polygonaceae (Knotweed family)
Synonyms: Polygonum orientale

Oriental Pepper is found in open, wet places along streams at low and medium altitudes. It also occurs in China to Japan and southward to Australia. The plant is a branching annual, 30-100 cm in height. The leaves are long-stalked, ovate or ovate-cordate, 15-20 cm long, 5-12 cm wide, and covered with soft, silky, grey hairs. The racemes are cylindric, laxly panicled, and 8-13 cm long. The flowers are white. The nut is about 3 mm in diameter, rounded, black, and shining. There is variety of this plant with rose-pink flowers, which is widely cultivated in the West as a garden plant, and is called Kiss Me Over The Garden Gate. Oriental Pepper is found in Eastern Himalayas, at altitudes of 800-2500 m.
Medicinal uses: The nuts are prescribed in tuberculous swellings and in flatulence.

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The flower labeled Oriental Pepper is ...