Pale persicaria (Polygonum lapathifolium) is an annual herb of the family Polygonaceae native to Britain and Europe where it grows on stream banks, in ditches, beside ponds and on wasteland and cultivated land. It has ascending or prostrate branched stems, which are swollen above the nodes. The leaves are alternate, broadly ovate to lanceolate and have undulate margins and usually a brown spot shaped like a half-moon with whitish dots on the upper surface. The flowers are small, pinkish or greenish-white in colour and are arranged in longish, dense, terminal, erect spikes. The fruit is a three-sided achene. Research Pale Persicaria