POLYGONACEAE (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 
t 
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. 
(Tintdria scéndens, 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 
