Biological Name:
Polygonum virginianum (Virginia-Smartweed)
Natural Habitat:
Virginia-Smartweed: This plant is native to eastern North America, including the state of Virginia. It typically grows in moist or wet habitats, such as along the edges of streams, ponds, and marshes.
Description:
Virginia-Smartweed is a herbaceous annual plant that is native to North America. It has small pink or white flowers and narrow pointed leaves. It is often found in wetland areas and can be a nuisance in garden beds.
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)
Q: Is smartweed native to Virginia?
A: Oriental Smartweed is a non-native invasive plant found in most of Virginia. It is native to Asia, and its first appearance in North America was probably around Philadelphia near the beginning of the 20th century.
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Q: Is smartweed good for bees?
A: It is known to be an excellent bee plant.
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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: Should I pull smartweed?
A: Some annual Smartweeds are easily controlled by pulling the weeds out after misting the soil lightly. For the perennial Knotweeds, persistence is needed to mechanically remove the crown and roots in established plants — it is best to pull them when they emerge.
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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: 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: Is smartweed good for anything?
A: Smartweed is an herb. The entire plant is used to make medicine. People take smartweed tea to stop bleeding from hemorrhoids, as well as menstrual bleeding and other uterine bleeding. They also use it to treat diarrhea.
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Q: Why do they call it smartweed?
A: The Latin genus name refers to the swollen nodes on the jointed, slightly angled stems. Knotweed is named for the sheath that encircles the nodes on the stems. The plants are called smartweed because they have a sharp, peppery flavor and their plant juice makes one’s eyes run.
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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 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: 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: Is smartweed a knotweed?
A: Smartweed (also known as knotweed) is the common name given to a whole genus of plants, Polygonum, which translates as many knees. Many members of this genus are, in fact, garden-worthy plants. That said, a number of members of the Polygonum genus are also weeds.
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Q: How do I get rid of smartweed?
A: Water the lawn as necessary and apply lawn fertilizer on a regular schedule. Frequent mowing helps keep the grass healthy, and it removes the tops of weeds, such as smartweed, before they have a chance to produce seeds. Rake up and bag debris that may contain seed heads.
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Q: Why is smartweed called smartweed?
A: The Latin genus name refers to the swollen nodes on the jointed, slightly angled stems. Knotweed is named for the sheath that encircles the nodes on the stems. The plants are called smartweed because they have a sharp, peppery flavor and their plant juice makes one’s eyes run.
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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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