Botanical name: Polygonum plebeium    Family: Polygonaceae (Knotweed family)
Synonyms: Polygonum plebejum

Small Knotweed is a prostrate, densely branched, annual herb. Stems are branched from base, branches numerous. Lance-like, elliptic, stalkless leaves are 1.0-3.0 x 0.1-0.4 cm, entire. Ochrea (a kind of sheath formed by two stipules united round a stem) are 1-2 mm long, membranous, ovate, tube-shaped. Flowers are pink, in leaf-axils, in clusters of 1-5, flower-stalks 0.5 mm long at flowering, usually enclosed by ochreae. Flowers sunken between ochrea or hardly coming out, 1-2 mm across, nearly stalkless. Tepals 5, 1.5-3 x 0.5-1.0 mm, inverted-lanceshaped - lanceshaped, unequal, outer tepals slightly longer and pointed, inner too blunt. Stamens 5, filaments long with broaden base, equal. Ovary small, trigonous with three styles and capitate stigmas. Nuts 1.0-1.75 mm long, circular to ovate, shining, black, hairless. Small Knotweed is found in India from sea level to 2200 m in the Himalayas. It is also found natively throughout much of South Asia and in Madagascar.

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The flower labeled Small Knotweed is ...