Plants annual, 3-5 dm; roots also often arising from proximal nodes. Stems decumbent to as-cending, glabrous except for fleshy, retrorse, whitish hairs at nodes. Leaves: ocrea brownish or hyaline, cylindric to funnelform, 4-10 mm, chartaceous, base inflated or not, margins oblique, eciliate, surface glabrous or with bristlelike hairs proximally; petiole 0.1-3 cm, winged to base, leaves sometimes sessile; blade ovate-deltate, 1.5-5 × 1-4 cm, base rounded to truncate, margins glabrous or scabrous, apex acute, faces pilose and glandular-punctate abaxially, glabrous adaxially. Inflorescences terminal and axillary, 5-10 × 5-10 mm; peduncle 2-20 mm, apex stipitate-glandular; ocreolae overlapping, margins eciliate. Pedicels mostly ascending, 0.1-1 mm, flowers sometimes sessile. Flowers 1-2 per ocreate fascicle; perianth white to pink or lavender, urceolate, glabrous, scarcely accrescent; tepals 4(-5), oblong to broadly elliptic, 2.5-3 mm, apex acute to obtuse; stamens (5-)8, filaments distinct, free; anthers purplish black, elliptic; styles 2, connate proximally. Achenes included, dark brown to black, biconvex, 1.5-2 × 1-1.5 mm, dull, minutely punctate.

Flowering Jul-Oct. Disturbed sites, gravel bars in lowland zone; 0-900 m; introduced; B.C.; Conn., Fla., Mass., N.Y., Pa.; Asia; introduced also in Europe, Africa.

Lax annual to 4 dm; lvs 1-5 cm, often splashed with red, glabrous or often bristly-hirsute beneath, ovate or deltoid, truncate or abruptly contracted to the winged petiole, which tends to be expanded and clasping at base; ocreae often bristly below; peduncles often stipitate-glandular; infl capitate, the greenish-white bracts equaling or exceeding the 8-30 fls; perianth greenish-white or anthocyanic, 2 mm at anthesis, accrescent to 3 mm and strongly surpassing the achene; achenes lenticular, red-brown, reticulate-ridged, elliptic, 1.5-2 mm; 2n=48. Moist, shady places; native of Asia, sometimes grown as a ground cover, and occasionally escaped into relatively stable habitats in N.Y., Conn., and Pa.

Gleason, Henry A. & Cronquist, Arthur J. 1991. Manual of vascular plants of northeastern United States and adjacent Canada. lxxv + 910 pp.

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