Polygonum arifolium L.

Halberd-leaved tearthumb, halberdleaf tearthumb

Similar species

	You are here Polygonum arifolium	Polygonum sagittatum	Polygonum perfoliatum
Common Name	halberd-leaved tearthumb	arrow tearthumb	Asiatic tearthumb
Plant	This vinelike plant has weak stems that are green, pink or red, with many tiny backward-pointing barbs used to support it as it grows over other plants. Plants may be 2–4′ (60–121 cm) long.	Stems 3–6′ (91–182 cm) long, green, pink, or red, hollow, vinelike, with squared edges and tiny, backward-pointing prickles.	Vines have reddish stems with backward-pointing hooks that allow it to clamber over other plants.
Leaves	Shaped like arrowheads, except that the backward-pointing barbs point outward (technically, “hastate”). Leaves are hairy, 4–4½″ (10–11 cm) long.	Shaped like narrow arrowheads, attached via short ⅜″ (1 cm) stems. The base of each leaf tends to wrap around the stem. Leaf edges also have tiny prickles.	Mile-a-minute vine has leaves that are almost perfect triangles, small curved barbs along its stems, and saucer-shaped leaves (ocreas) at its stem nodes. Although ocreas are present in all Polygonums, they usually take the form of a fibrous sheath wrapped tightly around the plant stem.
Flowers	Flowerheads are less than ⅜″ (1 cm) in diameter, white to light pink in color. Each rounded flowerhead consists of 5-20 individual flowers at the end of a long stem, which emerges from a leaf node.	Flowerheads are less than ⅜″ (1 cm) in diameter, white to pink in color. Each rounded flowerhead consists of 5-20 individual flowers at the end of a long stem.	Flowers and fruits emerge from the ocreas. Flowers are white, but inconspicuous.
Fruit	Rounded reddish-brown nutlets about ⅛″ (3.2 mm) around.	Small nutlets, brown to black.	Tightly packed clusters of 10-30 lobed metallic blue fruits, each about ⅛–¼″ (3.2–6.3 mm) around. Each lobe or segment contains a single glossy, black or reddish black seed.
Range/ Zones
Habitats	Marshes, swamps, wet meadows.	Wet, marshy ground.	Almost anywhere there are warm moist or wet open areas: woods, wetlands, roadsides, fields, stream banks, forest edges.

Polygonum arifolium description by Thomas H. Kent, not updated.

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