POLYGON ACE AE (BUCKWHEAT FAMILY) 105 



cemes, or often in small clusters of two to six on the small 

 branches ; they are greenish white, the calyx five-parted, persistent, 

 enfolding the achene, which is black, pointed, three-angled, 

 resembling a small kernel of buckwheat. (Fig. 62.) 



Means of control 



Sow clean seed. Before they begin to twine, rake the Bindweed 

 seedlings from the young grain with a weeding harrow. Directly 

 after harvest induce germination of seeds on the ground by giving 

 surface cultivation, the resulting growth being winter-killed or 

 turned under by the plow. Put the ground to a cultivated crop 

 before using it again for grain. 



CLIMBING FALSE BUCKWHEAT 



Polygonum scdndens, L. 

 (Tiniaria scdndens, Small.) 



Other English names : Hedge Bindweed, Hedge Buckwheat. 

 Native. Perennial. Propagates by seeds. 

 Time of bloom: June to September. 

 Seed-time: July to October. 



Range: Throughout the United States and southern British America. 

 Habitat : Moist soil ; twining over fences and thickets or trailing 

 on the ground. 



A very conspicuous weed, especially when in fruit, capable of 

 spreading itself over a square rod or so of ground, when not finding 

 other support. Stems very slender, pale green, faintly ridged and 

 slightly roughened on the ridges, three to twenty feet in length ; 

 several such stems strike off in all directions from the deep-boring, 

 branching, perennial root. Leaves halberd-shaped, the tips and 

 the basal auricles rather long-pointed, smooth but with edges 

 slightly roughened ; petioles long and nearly as thick as the stem 

 from which they spring ; sheath smooth, oblique, slightly rough on 

 the ridges. Flowers yellowish green, in slender, axillary racemes, 

 interrupted and leafy, two to four inches long ; calyx five-parted, 

 the three outer segments winged and decurrent on the pedicels. 

 Achenes small, three-angled, obtuse at both ends, jet black, smooth 

 and shining. They are persistent on the stems until cold weather 



