Persicaria barbata(L.) Hara

WFO wfo-0000488084 Accepted WFO 2026-06 8 photographs CC0 / CC BY

Plate 1 figs. a–h · 8 separate observations

Persicaria barbata, photographed by 葉子
fig. a 葉子, CC0 1.0 / 2022-02-17 / obs. 179919070

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.

Native range 34 botanical countries

Regions where Persicaria barbata is native: China South-Central, China Southeast, Hainan, Iran, Nansei-shoto, Saudi Arabia, Taiwan, Yemen, Andaman Is., Assam, Bangladesh, Bismarck Archipelago, Borneo, Cambodia, East Himalaya, India, Jawa, Laccadive Is., Laos, Lesser Sunda Is., Malaya, Maluku, Myanmar, Nepal, New Guinea, Nicobar Is., Pakistan, Philippines, Solomon Is., Sri Lanka, Sumatera, Thailand, Vietnam, West Himalaya China South-CentralChina SoutheastHainanIranSaudi ArabiaTaiwanYemenAssamBangladeshBismarck ArchipelagoBorneoCambodiaEast HimalayaIndiaJawaLaosLesser Sunda Is.MalayaMalukuMyanmarNepalNew GuineaPakistanPhilippinesSolomon Is.Sri LankaSumateraThailandVietnamWest Himalaya Nansei-shotoAndaman Is.Laccadive Is.Nicobar Is.
Native distribution of Persicaria barbata, 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
Andaman Is. AND ASIA-TROPICAL
Assam ASS
Bangladesh BAN
Bismarck Archipelago BIS
Borneo BOR
Cambodia CBD
East Himalaya EHM
India IND
Jawa JAW
Laccadive Is. LDV
Laos LAO
Lesser Sunda Is. LSI
Malaya MLY
Maluku MOL
Myanmar MYA
Nepal NEP
New Guinea NWG
Nicobar Is. NCB
Pakistan PAK
Philippines PHI
Solomon Is. SOL
Sri Lanka SRL
Sumatera SUM
Thailand THA
Vietnam VIE
West Himalaya WHM
China South-Central CHC ASIA-TEMPERATE
China Southeast CHS
Hainan CHH
Iran IRN
Nansei-shoto NNS
Saudi Arabia SAU
Taiwan TAI
Yemen YEM

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 36 in flower of 47 examined

Proportion of examined Persicaria barbata in flower, by month
Month In flower Examined Share 95% interval
Jan 5 6 83% 44% to 97%
Feb 1 1 too few examined
Mar 2 5 40% 12% to 77%
Apr 6 6 100% 61% to 100%
May 2 3 too few examined
Jun 3 5 60% 23% to 88%
Jul 3 6 50% 19% to 81%
Aug 1 2 too few examined
Sep 3 3 too few examined
Oct 4 4 too few examined
Nov 4 4 too few examined
Dec 2 2 too few examined

Peak flowering in Apr. Each bar is the share of Persicaria barbata 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. 36 of 47 examined observations were in flower, every one of them research grade. The whisker on each bar is a 95% Wilson interval. 7 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.

Also published as 7 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.

  • Persicaria barbata subsp. gracilis (Danser) Soják
  • Persicaria barbata var. barbata
  • Persicaria omerostroma (Ohki) Sasaki
  • Pogalis barbata (L.) Raf.
  • Polygonum barbatum L.
  • Polygonum kotoshoense Ohki
  • Polygonum omerostromum Ohki

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. 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.