Persicaria nepalensis(Meisn.) Miyabe

Nepalese smartweed

WFO wfo-0000488438 Accepted WFO 2026-06 8 photographs CC BY

Plate 1 figs. a–h · 8 separate observations

Persicaria nepalensis, photographed by sandy-espinozaf
fig. a sandy-espinozaf, CC BY 4.0 / 2022-04-30 / obs. 193906406
Persicaria nepalensis, photographed by Juan Carlos Caicedo Hernández
fig. b Juan Carlos Caicedo Hernández, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 191929869
Persicaria nepalensis, photographed by Steven Bodzin
fig. c Steven Bodzin, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 165447892
Persicaria nepalensis, photographed by giantcicada
fig. d giantcicada, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 159004479
Persicaria nepalensis, photographed by Nina Filippova
fig. e Nina Filippova, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 152902081
Persicaria nepalensis, photographed by GERMAN LEONEL SARMIENTO CRUZ
fig. f GERMAN LEONEL SARMIENTO CRUZ, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 125903664
Persicaria nepalensis, photographed by Andrés Ramírez-Barrera
fig. g Andrés Ramírez-Barrera, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 111447299
Persicaria nepalensis, photographed by りなべる
fig. h りなべる, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 110903749

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 49 botanical countries

Regions where Persicaria nepalensis is native: Burundi, Cameroon, DR Congo, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Gulf of Guinea Is., Kenya, KwaZulu-Natal, Madagascar, Malawi, Northern Provinces, Rwanda, Sudan-South Sudan, Tanzania, Uganda, Zambia, Afghanistan, China North-Central, China South-Central, China Southeast, Hainan, Inner Mongolia, Japan, Khabarovsk, Korea, Kuril Is., Manchuria, Primorye, Qinghai, Sakhalin, Tadzhikistan, Taiwan, Tibet, Yemen, Assam, East Himalaya, India, Jawa, Laos, Malaya, Myanmar, Nepal, New Guinea, Pakistan, Philippines, Sri Lanka, Thailand, Vietnam, West Himalaya BurundiCameroonDR CongoEritreaEthiopiaGulf of Guinea Is.KenyaKwaZulu-NatalMadagascarMalawiNorthern ProvincesRwandaSudan-South SudanTanzaniaUgandaZambiaAfghanistanChina North-CentralChina South-CentralChina SoutheastHainanInner MongoliaJapanKhabarovskManchuriaPrimoryeQinghaiSakhalinTadzhikistanTaiwanTibetYemenAssamEast HimalayaIndiaJawaLaosMalayaMyanmarNepalNew GuineaPakistanPhilippinesSri LankaThailandVietnamWest Himalaya Korea
Native distribution of Persicaria nepalensis, 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
Afghanistan AFG ASIA-TEMPERATE
China North-Central CHN
China South-Central CHC
China Southeast CHS
Hainan CHH
Inner Mongolia CHI
Japan JAP
Khabarovsk KHA
Korea KOR
Kuril Is. KUR
Manchuria CHM
Primorye PRM
Qinghai CHQ
Sakhalin SAK
Tadzhikistan TZK
Taiwan TAI
Tibet CHT
Yemen YEM
Burundi BUR AFRICA
Cameroon CMN
DR Congo ZAI
Eritrea ERI
Ethiopia ETH
Gulf of Guinea Is. GGI
Kenya KEN
KwaZulu-Natal NAT
Madagascar MDG
Malawi MLW
Northern Provinces TVL
Rwanda RWA
Sudan-South Sudan SUD
Tanzania TAN
Uganda UGA
Zambia ZAM
Assam ASS ASIA-TROPICAL
East Himalaya EHM
India IND
Jawa JAW
Laos LAO
Malaya MLY
Myanmar MYA
Nepal NEP
New Guinea NWG
Pakistan PAK
Philippines PHI
Sri Lanka SRL
Thailand THA
Vietnam VIE
West Himalaya WHM

Not drawn on the map: Kuril Is.. We hold no public-domain boundary for this region, so it is listed rather than guessed at.

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 303 in flower of 332 examined

Peak flowering in Jan. Each bar is the share of Persicaria nepalensis 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. 303 of 332 examined observations were in flower, every one of them research grade. The whisker on each bar is a 95% Wilson interval. 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 9 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.

  • Cephalophilon nepalense (Meisn.) Tzvelev
  • Persicaria alata (Buch.-Ham.) Nakai
  • Persicaria nepalensis (Meisn.) H.Gross
  • Polygonum alatum (D.Don) Buch.-Ham. ex Spreng.
  • Polygonum alatum var. nepalense (Meisn.) Hook.f.
  • Polygonum nepalense Meisn.
  • Polygonum nepalense var. adenothrix Nakai
  • Polygonum punctatum var. alatum D.Don
  • Polygonum quadrifidum Hayata

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 PONE9. 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.