Fallopia scandens(L.) Holub

climbing false buckwheat

WFO wfo-0000685812 Accepted WFO 2026-06 8 photographs CC0 / CC BY

Plate 1 figs. a–h · 8 separate observations

Fallopia scandens, photographed by Ryan Sorrells
fig. a Ryan Sorrells, CC BY 4.0 / 2022-04-26 / obs. 191165532
Fallopia scandens, photographed by Michael J. Papay
fig. b Michael J. Papay, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 168093558
Fallopia scandens, photographed by Yann Kemper
fig. c Yann Kemper, CC0 1.0 / obs. 162768868
Fallopia scandens, photographed by Melissa McMasters
fig. d Melissa McMasters, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 167611299
Fallopia scandens, photographed by Shirley Zundell
fig. e Shirley Zundell, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 164847052
Fallopia scandens, photographed by Alby Penney
fig. f Alby Penney, CC0 1.0 / obs. 161640487
Fallopia scandens, photographed by Violet T.
fig. g Violet T., CC BY 4.0 / obs. 162417456
Fallopia scandens, photographed by Violet T.
fig. h Violet T., CC BY 4.0 / obs. 160849942

Every figure is a research-grade observation under CC0, CC BY or CC BY-SA, rehosted with the photographer’s name, the licence and the observation it came from. Photographs under a NonCommercial licence are excluded from this site and are never stored, which costs us a great many pictures and is not negotiable.

The specimen a real sheet, in a real collection

Herbarium
The New York Botanical Garden
Accession
01157652
Filed as
Fallopia scandens (L.) Holub
Det. by
D. E. Atha 2010-01-01
Collected
D. E. Atha 2009-09-22
Origin
US
The sheet
View the digitised specimen (CC BY 4.0)

A real pressed plant, in a real collection, under the accession number above. Not an illustration of one. The holding institution does not serve this sheet’s image to third parties, so there is no photograph here. The record is real and the link goes to it. Where we hold no openly licensed sheet for a species this section is simply absent, and where a sheet never recorded who determined it, that field stays empty rather than being filled in. Roughly half of all herbarium sheets never recorded a determiner, which is ordinary.

Native range 48 botanical countries

Regions where Fallopia scandens is native: Alabama, Alberta, Arkansas, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, District of Columbia, Florida, Georgia, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maine, Manitoba, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, Mississippi, Missouri, Nebraska, New Brunswick, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, North Carolina, North Dakota, Nova Scotia, Ohio, Oklahoma, Ontario, Pennsylvania, Prince Edward I., Québec, Rhode I., Saskatchewan, South Carolina, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas, Vermont, Virginia, West Virginia, Wisconsin, Wyoming AlabamaAlbertaArkansasColoradoConnecticutFloridaGeorgiaIllinoisIndianaIowaKansasKentuckyLouisianaMaineManitobaMarylandMassachusettsMichiganMinnesotaMississippiMissouriNebraskaNew BrunswickNew HampshireNew JerseyNew YorkNorth CarolinaNorth DakotaNova ScotiaOhioOklahomaOntarioPennsylvaniaPrince Edward I.QuébecSaskatchewanSouth CarolinaSouth DakotaTennesseeTexasVermontVirginiaWest VirginiaWisconsinWyoming DelawareDistrict of ColumbiaRhode I.
Native distribution of Fallopia scandens, after Kew’s World Checklist of Vascular Plants. Introduced, extinct and doubtful records are excluded, so this is where the plant is from, not everywhere it now grows. Regions too small to draw at this scale are marked with a dot.
RegionTDWG codeContinent
Alabama ALA NORTHERN AMERICA
Alberta ABT
Arkansas ARK
Colorado COL
Connecticut CNT
Delaware DEL
District of Columbia WDC
Florida FLA
Georgia GEO
Illinois ILL
Indiana INI
Iowa IOW
Kansas KAN
Kentucky KTY
Louisiana LOU
Maine MAI
Manitoba MAN
Maryland MRY
Massachusetts MAS
Michigan MIC
Minnesota MIN
Mississippi MSI
Missouri MSO
Nebraska NEB
New Brunswick NBR
New Hampshire NWH
New Jersey NWJ
New York NWY
North Carolina NCA
North Dakota NDA
Nova Scotia NSC
Ohio OHI
Oklahoma OKL
Ontario ONT
Pennsylvania PEN
Prince Edward I. PEI
Québec QUE
Rhode I. RHO
Saskatchewan SAS
South Carolina SCA
South Dakota SDA
Tennessee TEN
Texas TEX
Vermont VER
Virginia VRG
West Virginia WVA
Wisconsin WIS
Wyoming WYO

Region boundaries approximated from Natural Earth (public domain) and mapped to TDWG World Geographical Scheme for Recording Plant Distributions (WGSRPD) level-3 botanical countries (Brummitt 2001). Indicative, not the official WGSRPD geometry.

Flowering 196 in flower of 441 examined

Peak flowering in Jun. Each bar is the share of Fallopia scandens observations in which someone actually recorded the reproductive state and found the plant in flower, not the raw number of flowering records. That distinction matters: people observe plants far more in spring than in winter, so a bare count of flowering records partly measures when people go outside. Dividing by the number examined removes that. 196 of 441 examined observations were in flower, every one of them research grade. The whisker on each bar is a 95% Wilson interval. 6 months have fewer than 5 examined observations, so no proportion is drawn for them. This is still a global aggregate and not a forecast for your garden: the same species flowers on different dates in different hemispheres. Where a species has fewer than 30 flowering records we do not draw this chart at all. Computed from 10.15468/dl.cgje2x.

Where it actually grows measured, from 1,991 observations

Condition 5th percentile Median 95th percentile
Coldest month, mean daily low -13.2 °C -6.0 °C -0.3 °C
Warmest month, mean daily high 24.1 °C 28.1 °C 31.6 °C
Annual rainfall 860 mm 1,128 mm 1,395 mm
Rainfall in the driest quarter 80 mm 225 mm 302 mm

It is found where winters bring hard frost. This is not care advice and it is not a forecast. It is a measurement: we sampled the climate at every one of the 1,991 research-grade observations of Fallopia scandens that carry a coordinate, and this is the range those places actually span. The 5th and 95th percentiles are used rather than the minimum and maximum, because a single cultivated specimen in a heated conservatory should not widen a tropical plant's range to the Arctic.

This is not a hardiness zone. A USDA zone is the average annual extreme minimum temperature. The figure above is the mean daily minimum of the coldest month, which is a different quantity and is typically far warmer. Reading one as the other would place a plant several zones too warm, so we do not publish a hardiness zone, because we do not have one. Climate from CHELSA V2.1 (Karger et al. 2017); occurrences from 10.15468/dl.cgje2x.

Also published as 12 synonyms

A synonym is not an error. It is a record of botanists disagreeing, in print, about where this plant belongs. Each of these was somebody’s considered answer.

  • Anredera scandens (L.) Moq.
  • Bilderdykia scandens (L.) Greene
  • Fagopyrum scandens (L.) H.Gross
  • Helxine scandens (L.) Raf.
  • Polygonum cristatum Engelm. & A.Gray
  • Polygonum dumetorum var. scandens (L.) A.Gray
  • Polygonum scandens L.
  • Polygonum scandens var. cristatum (Engelm. & A.Gray) Gleason
  • Reynoutria scandens (L.) Shinners
  • Reynoutria scandens var. cristata (Engelm. & A.Gray) Shinners
  • Tiniaria cristata (Engelm. & A.Gray) Small
  • Tiniaria scandens Small

Sourcesevery claim on this page

  1. World Flora Online Plant List. accepted name, authority, classification. CC0. Retrieved 2026-07-12.
  2. iNaturalist. photographs and flowering annotations, CC0 / CC BY / CC BY-SA only. per photograph. Retrieved 2026-06-27.
  3. USDA PLANTS Database. common name, checklist symbol POSC3. public domain. Retrieved 2026-07-13.
  4. Kew, World Checklist of Vascular Plants (WCVP v16). native distribution by TDWG level-3 botanical country, and life form. CC BY 3.0. Retrieved 2026-06-04.

We publish what we can source and we say so when we cannot. This page has no care advice and no toxicity claim, because we do not yet have those from a source we can cite.