Persicaria madagascariensis(Meisn.) S.Ortiz & Paiva

WFO wfo-0000488469 Accepted WFO 2026-06 8 photographs CC0 / CC BY / CC BY-SA

Plate 1 figs. a–h · 8 separate observations

Persicaria madagascariensis, photographed by Tony Rebelo
fig. a Tony Rebelo, CC BY-SA 4.0 / 2022-06-10 / obs. 205878974
Persicaria madagascariensis, photographed by Paul Emms
fig. b Paul Emms, CC BY-SA 4.0 / obs. 201808239
Persicaria madagascariensis, photographed by Tim Kirsten
fig. c Tim Kirsten, CC0 1.0 / obs. 192453598
Persicaria madagascariensis, photographed by Tony Rebelo
fig. d Tony Rebelo, CC BY-SA 4.0 / obs. 187333692
Persicaria madagascariensis, photographed by Tony Rebelo
fig. e Tony Rebelo, CC BY-SA 4.0 / obs. 187329730
Persicaria madagascariensis, photographed by Shaun Swanepoel
fig. f Shaun Swanepoel, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 181444183
Persicaria madagascariensis, photographed by Tim Kirsten
fig. g Tim Kirsten, CC0 1.0 / obs. 179712603
Persicaria madagascariensis, photographed by Tony Rebelo
fig. h Tony Rebelo, CC BY-SA 4.0 / obs. 177810897

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 37 botanical countries

Regions where Persicaria madagascariensis is native: Angola, Benin, Botswana, Burkina, Burundi, Cape Provinces, Central African Republic, Chad, Congo, DR Congo, Eswatini, Ethiopia, Free State, Gabon, Ghana, Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Ivory Coast, Kenya, KwaZulu-Natal, Madagascar, Malawi, Mali, Mozambique, Namibia, Niger, Nigeria, Northern Provinces, Rwanda, Senegal, Sierra Leone, Sudan-South Sudan, Tanzania, Togo, Uganda, Zambia, Zimbabwe AngolaBeninBotswanaBurkinaBurundiCape ProvincesCentral African RepublicChadCongoDR CongoEswatiniEthiopiaFree StateGabonGhanaGuineaGuinea-BissauIvory CoastKenyaKwaZulu-NatalMadagascarMalawiMaliMozambiqueNamibiaNigerNigeriaNorthern ProvincesRwandaSenegalSierra LeoneSudan-South SudanTanzaniaTogoUgandaZambiaZimbabwe
Native distribution of Persicaria madagascariensis, 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.
RegionTDWG codeContinent
Angola ANG AFRICA
Benin BEN
Botswana BOT
Burkina BKN
Burundi BUR
Cape Provinces CPP
Central African Republic CAF
Chad CHA
Congo CON
DR Congo ZAI
Eswatini SWZ
Ethiopia ETH
Free State OFS
Gabon GAB
Ghana GHA
Guinea GUI
Guinea-Bissau GNB
Ivory Coast IVO
Kenya KEN
KwaZulu-Natal NAT
Madagascar MDG
Malawi MLW
Mali MLI
Mozambique MOZ
Namibia NAM
Niger NGR
Nigeria NGA
Northern Provinces TVL
Rwanda RWA
Senegal SEN
Sierra Leone SIE
Sudan-South Sudan SUD
Tanzania TAN
Togo TOG
Uganda UGA
Zambia ZAM
Zimbabwe ZIM

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 31 in flower of 33 examined

Peak flowering in Feb. Each bar is the share of Persicaria madagascariensis 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. 31 of 33 examined observations were in flower, every one of them research grade. The whisker on each bar is a 95% Wilson interval. 11 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 3 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 attenuata subsp. africana K.L.Wilson
  • Polygonum madagascariense (Meisn.) Meisn.
  • Polygonum poiretii var. madagascariensis Meisn.

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.