Biological Name:
Polygonum spp. (Smartweed)
Natural Habitat:
Smartweed: This plant is native to North America and can be found in a variety of habitats, including wetlands, stream banks, and damp meadows.
Description:
Smartweed also known as Polygonum is a plant that is native to wetland and riparian areas of North America. It is an annual or perennial herb that can grow up to six feet tall and it has small oval-shaped leaves and small white or pink flowers that bloom in the summer. The plant is known for its sharp stinging hairs which can cause irritation to the skin and it is often found growing in disturbed or degraded habitats.
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)
Q: What is smartweed good for?
A: Smartweed is an herb. The above-ground parts are used to make medicine. People use smartweed for diarrhea, to stop bleeding, for the common cold, and other conditions, but there is no good scientific evidence to support these uses.
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Q: Can I eat smartweed?
A: Mature leaves and stems chopped up and used sparingly as pepper, leaves and stems boils in soups, again sparingly. Numerous herbal applications. The roots of some species are edible cooked, some require a little cooking, others require much cooking. The seeds of some are also edible.
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Q: Is smartweed poisonous to dogs?
A: Smartweeds: Do not let your dog lick the sap of the smartweed wildflower. Snow-on-the-mountain: This field plant has toxic sap when consumed by dogs. Soapberry: Dog poisoning symptoms are diarrhea and vomiting.
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Q: What is difference between smartweed and knotweed?
A: Smartweeds are much smaller than the non-native knotweeds and only grow a few feet tall. They have more flimsy stems and do not grow to be large shrubs.
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Q: What animal eats smartweed?
A: This plant is an excellent wildlife food plant, especially for waterfowl. Twenty species of ducks, geese, bobwhites, mourning doves, ring-necked pheasants, and four species of rails, as well as 30 nongame birds, eat the seeds. Dense stands provide cover for young waterfowl, marsh birds, and wintering pheasants.
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Q: Is smartweed edible?
A: Mature leaves and stems chopped up and used sparingly as pepper, leaves and stems boils in soups, again sparingly. Numerous herbal applications. The roots of some species are edible cooked, some require a little cooking, others require much cooking. The seeds of some are also edible.
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Q: Why should you not cut Japanese knotweed?
A: If you do find Japanese knotweed on your property it is most important that you prevent further spread of the plant. Do not strim, cut, flail or chip the plants as tiny fragments can regenerate new plants and make the problem even more difficult to manage.
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Q: Do honeybees like smartweed?
A: Smartweed is found around the levees of rice fields. Its pink blooms attract great numbers of honey bees in the early fall. After smartweed is pollinated by honey bees, it produces large amounts of seed which propagate the plant and provide food for ducks and other birds.
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Q: Is smartweed good for ponds?
A: This perennial plant is often considered a nuisance; however, water smartweed is an important food source for aquatic waterfowl, songbirds, quail, doves, and small mammals. They also hold soil and purify the water. To prevent overabundant growth treat invaded area early in the season before dense stands of weed occur.
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Q: Where does smartweed grow?
A: Smartweed can be found in marshes, swamps, wet forests, and ditches.
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Q: Should I remove smartweed?
A: The annual smartweeds emerge in early Spring and will grow throughout the Spring and Summer and dieback in the Fall. It is important to control these weeds before they go to seed because one plant can produce close to 20,000 seeds per plant.
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Q: Do whitetail deer eat smartweed?
A: White-tailed Deer, Eastern Cottontail, and Muskrat are said to eat the plant itself.
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Q: Is smartweed a grass?
A: Smartweed is a summer annual broadleaf weedbroadleaf weed. Broadleaf weeds, as their name suggests, often have wide leaves and grow from a stem. Most broadleaf weeds develop clusters of blossoms or single flowers as they mature that can be considered undesirable. The roots of most broadleaf weeds are fibrous in nature. The roots can be thin, a large taproot, or a combination.
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Q: Why is it called smartweed?
A: The plants are called smartweed because they have a sharp, peppery flavor and their plant juice makes one’s eyes run. The leaves are at least an inch in length although in a few cases they’re much larger.
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Q: What animal eats smartweed?
A: This plant is an excellent wildlife food plant, especially for waterfowl. Twenty species of ducks, geese, bobwhites, mourning doves, ring-necked pheasants, and four species of rails, as well as 30 nongame birds, eat the seeds. Dense stands provide cover for young waterfowl, marsh birds, and wintering pheasants.
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Q: Can you eat smartweed?
A: Mature leaves and stems chopped up and used sparingly as pepper, leaves and stems boils in soups, again sparingly. Numerous herbal applications. The roots of some species are edible cooked, some require a little cooking, others require much cooking. The seeds of some are also edible.
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Q: Where do Fireweeds grow?
A: Fireweed is a tall showy wildflower that grows from sea level to the subalpine zone. A colorful sight in many parts of the country, fireweed thrives in open meadows, along streams, roadsides, and forest edges. In some places, this species is so abundant that it can carpet entire meadows with brilliant pink flowers.
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Q: How can you tell smartweed?
A: The leaves are lanceolate to oblong-lanceolate and pointed at both ends, with short petioles. The flower clusters are raceme-like and terminal. Swamp Smartweed has terminal flower clusters of green-white flowers, with fine whitish hairs appressed to the stem and leaves.
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Q: What does smartweed mean?
A: Any of various knotgrasses (genus Polygonum) whose acrid juice may cause skin irritation.
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