Plantae > Tracheophyta > Magnoliopsida > Caryophyllales > Polygonaceae > Bistorta > Bistorta officinalis

Bistorta officinalis (meadow bistort)

Wikipedia Abstract

Bistorta officinalis, commonly known as bistort or European bistort, is a species of flowering plants in the dock family Polygonaceae, previously included in the genera Polygonum or Persicaria. Other common names include snakeroot, snake-root, snakeweed and Easter-ledges.
View Wikipedia Record: Bistorta officinalis

Infraspecies

Bistorta officinalis carnea
Bistorta officinalis japonica
Bistorta officinalis officinalis (Meadow bistort)
Bistorta officinalis pacifica

Attributes

Allergen Potential [1]  Medium-High
Screening - Summer [3]  Porous
Screening - Winter [3]  Porous
Bee Flower Color [2]  Blue-Green
Flower Color [3]  Purple
Foliage Color [3]  Green
Fruit Color [3]  Brown
Bloom Period [3]  Mid Spring
Drought Tolerance [3]  Low
Edible [4]  May be edible. See the Plants For A Future link below for details.
Fire Tolerance [3]  Low
Flower Type [4]  Hermaphrodite
Frost Free Days [3]  4 months 20 days
Fruit/Seed Abundance [3]  Medium
Fruit/Seed Begin [3]  Summer
Fruit/Seed End [3]  Summer
Growth Form [3]  Rhizomatous
Growth Period [3]  Spring, Summer
Growth Rate [3]  Moderate
Hazards [4]  Although no specific mention has been made for this species, there have been reports that some members of this genus can cause photosensitivity in susceptible people. Many species also contain oxalic acid (the distinctive lemony flavour of sorrel) - whilst not toxic this substance can bind up other minerals making them unavailable to the body and leading to mineral deficiency. Having said that, a number of common foods such as sorrel and rhubarb contain oxalic acid and the leaves of most members of this genus are nutritious and beneficial to eat in moderate quantities. Cooking the leaves will reduce their content of oxalic acid. People with a tendency to rheumatism, arthritis, gout, kidney stones or hyperacidity should take especial caution if including this plant in their diet since it can aggravate their condition;
Leaf Type [3]  Deciduous
Lifespan [4]  Perennial
Pollinators [4]  Insects, Lepidoptera
Propagation [3]  Seed, Sprig
Regrowth Rate [3]  Slow
Root Depth [3]  16 inches (41 cm)
Seed Spread Rate [3]  Slow
Seed Vigor [3]  Medium
Seeds Per [3]  125000 / lb (275578 / kg)
Shape/Orientation [3]  Semi-Erect
Structure [6]  Herb
Usage [4]  The roots contain up to 21% tannin;
Vegetative Spread Rate [3]  Slow
Flower Conspicuous [3]  Yes
Height [4]  20 inches (0.5 m)
Width [4]  20 inches (0.5 m)
Hardiness Zone Minimum [3]  USDA Zone: 5 Low Temperature: -20 F° (-28.9 C°) → -10 F° (-23.3 C°)
Light Preference [5]  Mixed Sun/Shade
Soil Acidity [5]  Moderate Acid
Soil Fertility [5]  Intermediate
Soil Moisture [5]  Damp
Water Use [3]  Moderate
View Plants For A Future Record : Bistorta officinalis

Protected Areas

Ecosystems

Predators

Providers

Consumers

Parasitized by 
Chromatomyia horticola[7]
Ramularia bistortae[7]
Septoria polygonorum[7]

External References

USDA Plant Profile

Citations

Attributes / relations provided by
♦ 1Derived from Allergy-Free Gardening OPALS™, Thomas Leo Ogren (2000)
♦ 2Arnold SEJ, Faruq S, Savolainen V, McOwan PW, Chittka L, 2010 FReD: The Floral Reflectance Database — A Web Portal for Analyses of Flower Colour. PLoS ONE 5(12): e14287.
♦ 3USDA Plants Database, U. S. Department of Agriculture
♦ 4Plants For A Future licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License
♦ 5ECOFACT 2a Technical Annex - Ellenberg’s indicator values for British Plants, M O Hill, J O Mountford, D B Roy & R G H Bunce (1999)
♦ 6Kattge, J. et al. (2011b) TRY - a global database of plant traits Global Change Biology 17:2905-2935
♦ 7Ecology of Commanster
♦ 8Biological Records Centre Database of Insects and their Food Plants
♦ 9HOSTS - a Database of the World's Lepidopteran Hostplants Gaden S. Robinson, Phillip R. Ackery, Ian J. Kitching, George W. Beccaloni AND Luis M. Hernández
♦ 10Jorrit H. Poelen, James D. Simons and Chris J. Mungall. (2014). Global Biotic Interactions: An open infrastructure to share and analyze species-interaction datasets. Ecological Informatics.
♦ 11Clements, R. E., and F. L. Long. 1923, Experimental pollination. An outline of the ecology of flowers and insects. Washington, D.C., USA, Carnegie Institute of Washington.
Abstract provided by DBpedia licensed under a Creative Commons License
Species taxanomy provided by GBIF Secretariat (2022). GBIF Backbone Taxonomy. Checklist dataset https://doi.org/10.15468/39omei accessed via GBIF.org on 2023-06-13; License: CC BY 4.0