- Description:
Stems are smooth with many branches. Dark green leaves are 2-4 inches long, ½-1 inch wide
and taper toward the tip. Small, pink flowers are clustered at the tips of the branches.
- Comments:
Smartweed fruits are produced in great quantity and are an important food for waterfowl
and other wildlife. The pungent plant juices can irritate skin and eyes, causing a
smarting sensation, which is the derivative for their common name. Another name is
“knotweed” because of the swollen joints along the stem. Smartweeds are food for
the larva of the bronze copper butterfly. There are 18 related smartweed species in
Kansas. Some of them have white flowers. Pink Smartweed grows in moist soil at pond
margins, old buffalo wallows and in disturbed soils of wet ditches. It is found statewide.
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