Index / Search / Polygonum bistorta
§1 Plant
Polygonum bistorta L.
vernacular meadow bistort — species · Polygonaceae
§2Habit & range
Habit and range
- Growth habit
- Forb/herb
- Duration
- Perennial
- Group
- Dicot
- Family
- Polygonaceae Juss.
- Genus
- Polygonum
§2a
Native status, by region
- AK Alaska Native
- CAN Canada Introduced
- L48 Lower 48 States Introduced
§2b
County-level range
· 20 counties across 4 states/territories§3Cultivation specs · USDA
Recorded by the USDA Plant Materials Program.
§3a
Tolerances
- Drought
- Low
- Shade
- Medium
- Moisture use
- Medium
- Fire
- Low
- Salinity
- None
- Anaerobic
- Low
- CaCO₃
- Low
- Hedging
- None
§3b
Climate & soil
- Cold tolerance
- -18 °F minimum
- Frost-free days
- 140 min.
- Precipitation
- 36–55 in/yr
- pH range
- 5.5–7
- Root depth
- 16 in min.
- Fertility need
- Medium
- Soil texture
- coarse, medium
§3c
Form & growth
- Growth form
- Rhizomatous
- Growth rate
- Moderate
- Lifespan
- Moderate
- Mature height
- 1 ft
- Foliage texture
- Coarse
- Foliage colour
- Green
- Porosity (summer)
- Porous
- Porosity (winter)
- Porous
- Flower colour
- Purple
- Fruit colour
- Brown
- Fire resistant
- No
- N fixation
- None
- Toxicity
- None
§3d
Reproduction
- Bloom period
- Mid Spring
- Seed abundance
- Medium
- Seed begins
- Summer
- Seed ends
- Summer
- Spread rate
- Slow
- Stratify
- No
- Seeds / lb
- 125,000
- Propagation
- seed, sprigs
§3e
Use & availability
- Commercial availability
- Routinely Available
- Nursery stock
- No
- Palatable, human
- No
- Lumber
- No
- Christmas tree
- No
§4Counties, by state
Recorded in 20 counties across 4 states/territories.
Alaska view state ↗ 15 N ▾
Maine view state ↗ 1 B ▾
Massachusetts view state ↗ 3 B ▾
Vermont view state ↗ 1 B ▾
§5Sources & provenance
USDA PLANTS
Symbol, taxonomy, distribution, cultivation specs, native status. Public domain.
plants.usda.gov/POBI5 ↗GBIF Backbone
Canonical taxonomic identity, synonym resolution, cross-refs. CC0.
gbif.org/species/7395841 ↗Record version
Cached and built locally. Source version on this record:
usda-plants-mt-2026-05-26
fetched 2026-05-26T07:25:30Z