Polygonum orientale. Kurt Stueber.Luirig.altervista.org (Accessed 4/2014).

Polygonum orientale is an annual herb to 2.5 m, erect, branching, softly hairy; leaf sheaths hairy, often with a herbaceous flange-like border. 

Leaves alternate, egg-shaped, tip long-pointed, base broad, round to lobed, long-stalked.

Flowers red to dark pink; inflorescences showy clusters of large, dense racemes, drooping, to 8 cm long; blooming and fruiting June-Oct. (Hough 1983). 

Fruit dry (achenes), flat, lens-shaped. 

Wetland status: FACU-. 

Frequency in NYC: Very infrequent. 

Origin: India. 

Habitat: Escaped from cultivation into open, disturbed areas. Invasive in some states (USDA, NRCS 2006).