Bistort, Amphibious

Information on Amphibious Bistort

Common Name: Amphibious Bistort
Scientific Name: Persicaria amphibia
Irish Name: Glúineach uisce
Family Group: Polygonaceae
Distribution: View Map (Courtesy of the BSBI)
Flowering Period


Click for list of all flowering by month
Amphibious Bistort is not easily confused with other wild plants on this web site.


In slow moving streams, marshes, ponds and ditches, this plant can be seen on flower from June to September. It's a creeping perennial which spreads by rhizomes and it bears deep pink flowers in dense, erect spikes, each having five protruding stamens. The hairless, floating leaves are linear, truncate at their base and borne on long petioles. Commonly found throughout Ireland, this native plant belongs to the Polygonaceae family. 

I first recorded this wildflower near Killoughter, Co Wicklow in 1979 and I photographed it growing on Vartry Reservoir, Co Wicklow in 2010 

If you are satisfied you have correctly identified this plant, please submit your sighting to the National Biodiversity Data Centre

There are two forms of Amphibious Bistort - the plant described above and a terrestrial form. In the latter, the leaves have a short petiole, are downy and cordate at the base. They grow on margins of rivers, lakes and on damp grassland.

First recorded in 1727 by Caleb Threlkeld –'This we found in some deep Pools in the Pasture against the Salmon-weyr, upon the South side of the Liffy'.

 

Bistort, Amphibious
Bistort, Amphibious
Bistort, Amphibious
Bistort, Amphibious