''Fallopia'' is a genus of about 12 species of

flowering plant Flowering plants are plants that bear flowers and fruits, and form the clade Angiospermae (). The term angiosperm is derived from the Ancient Greek, Greek words (; 'container, vessel') and (; 'seed'), meaning that the seeds are enclosed with ...

s in the buckwheat family, often included in a wider treatment of the related genus ''

Polygonum ''Polygonum'' is a genus of about 130 species of flowering plants in the buckwheat and knotweed family Polygonaceae. Common names include knotweed and knotgrass (though the common names may refer more broadly to plants from Polygonaceae). In the ...

'' in the past, and previously including ''

Reynoutria ''Reynoutria'' is a genus of flowering plants in the Polygonaceae, also known as the knotweed or buckwheat family. The genus is native to eastern China, Eastern Asia and the Russian Far East, although species have been introduced to Europe and No ...

''. The genus is native to temperate and subtropical regions of the

Northern Hemisphere The Northern Hemisphere is the half of Earth that is north of the equator. For other planets in the Solar System, north is defined by humans as being in the same celestial sphere, celestial hemisphere relative to the invariable plane of the Solar ...

, but species have been introduced elsewhere. The genus includes species forming

vine A vine is any plant with a growth habit of trailing or scandent (that is, climbing) stems, lianas, or runners. The word ''vine'' can also refer to such stems or runners themselves, for instance, when used in wicker work.Jackson; Benjamin; Da ...

s and

shrub A shrub or bush is a small to medium-sized perennial woody plant. Unlike herbaceous plants, shrubs have persistent woody stems above the ground. Shrubs can be either deciduous or evergreen. They are distinguished from trees by their multiple ...

Description

Species of ''Fallopia'' grow as

liana A liana is a long-Plant stem, stemmed Woody plant, woody vine that is rooted in the soil at ground level and uses trees, as well as other means of vertical support, to climb up to the Canopy (biology), canopy in search of direct sunlight. T ...

s or subshrubs. Unlike species of the related genus ''

Duma A duma () is a Russian assembly with advisory or legislative functions. The term ''boyar duma'' is used to refer to advisory councils in Russia from the 10th to 17th centuries. Starting in the 18th century, city dumas were formed across Russia ...

'', they do not have thornlike tips to their branches.

Nectar Nectar is a viscous, sugar-rich liquid produced by Plant, plants in glands called nectaries, either within the flowers with which it attracts pollination, pollinating animals, or by extrafloral nectaries, which provide a nutrient source to an ...

ies are present outside the flowers (extrafloral). Plants usually have

bisexual Bisexuality is romantic attraction, sexual attraction, or sexual behavior toward both males and females. It may also be defined as the attraction to more than one gender, to people of both the same and different gender, or the attraction t ...

flowers. More rarely they may be

dioecious Dioecy ( ; ; adj. dioecious, ) is a characteristic of certain species that have distinct unisexual individuals, each producing either male or female gametes, either directly (in animals) or indirectly (in seed plants). Dioecious reproduction is ...

, each plant only having flowers with either functional

stamen The stamen (: stamina or stamens) is a part consisting of the male reproductive organs of a flower. Collectively, the stamens form the androecium., p. 10 Morphology and terminology A stamen typically consists of a stalk called the filament ...

s or a functional

pistil Gynoecium (; ; : gynoecia) is most commonly used as a collective term for the parts of a flower that produce ovules and ultimately develop into the fruit and seeds. The gynoecium is the innermost whorl (botany), whorl of a flower; it consists ...

. The flowers are arranged in a

raceme A raceme () or racemoid is an unbranched, indeterminate growth, indeterminate type of inflorescence bearing flowers having short floral stalks along the shoots that bear the flowers. The oldest flowers grow close to the base and new flowers are ...

. The

tepal A tepal is one of the outer parts of a flower (collectively the perianth). The term is used when these parts cannot easily be classified as either sepals or petals. This may be because the parts of the perianth are undifferentiated (i.e. of very ...

s of the flowers are dry and paper-like when mature. The flowers have short styles with partially fused stigmas forming a "head". The fruits are

achene An achene (; ), also sometimes called akene and occasionally achenium or achenocarp, is a type of simple fruit, simple dry fruits, dry fruit produced by many species of flowering plants. Achenes are monocarpellate (formed from one carpel) and Dehi ...

s with three sharp edges.

Taxonomy

The genus ''Fallopia'' was first described by

Michel Adanson Michel Adanson (7 April 17273 August 1806) was an 18th-century French botanist and naturalist who traveled to Senegal to study flora and fauna. He proposed a "natural system" of taxonomy distinct from the binomial system forwarded by Linnaeus. ...

in 1763. He distinguished it from ''

'' and other genera he placed in his family "Persicariae". Adanson did not explain the origin of the name. It is said to be named after the Italian botanist

Gabriele Falloppio Gabriele Falloppio (1522/23 – 9 October 1562) was an Italian priest and anatomist often known by his Latin name Fallopius. He was one of the most important human anatomy, anatomists and physicians of the sixteenth century, giving his name to t ...

, known as Fallopius in Latin. He was the superintendent of the

botanical garden A botanical garden or botanic gardenThe terms ''botanic'' and ''botanical'' and ''garden'' or ''gardens'' are used more-or-less interchangeably, although the word ''botanic'' is generally reserved for the earlier, more traditional gardens. is ...

Padua Padua ( ) is a city and ''comune'' (municipality) in Veneto, northern Italy, and the capital of the province of Padua. The city lies on the banks of the river Bacchiglione, west of Venice and southeast of Vicenza, and has a population of 20 ...

and an acclaimed anatomist, being considered a founder of modern

anatomy Anatomy () is the branch of morphology concerned with the study of the internal structure of organisms and their parts. Anatomy is a branch of natural science that deals with the structural organization of living things. It is an old scien ...

. The status of the genus has varied considerably over time, and its taxonomic history is complicated. For example, Meissner in 1856 placed both Adanson's ''Fallopia'' and the genus ''Reynoutria'' in a broadly defined ''Polygonum'', as did Bentham and Hooker in 1880. When the genus ''Fallopia'' was recognized, as was generally the case from the 1970s onwards, ''Reynoutria'' was sometimes included and sometimes not. Thus the ''Flora of North America'' in 2005 included ''Reynoutria'' in ''Fallopia'', whereas the ''Flora of China'' in 2003 separated the two genera. Subsequent

molecular phylogenetic Molecular phylogenetics () is the branch of phylogeny that analyzes genetic, hereditary molecular differences, predominantly in DNA sequences, to gain information on an organism's evolutionary relationships. From these analyses, it is possible to ...

studies have confirmed the separation of ''Fallopia'' from other related genera.

Classification and phylogeny

''Fallopia'' is placed in the tribe Polygoneae of the subfamily

Polygonoideae Polygonoideae is a subfamily of plants in the family Polygonaceae. It includes a number of plants that can be highly invasive, such as Japanese knotweed, '' Reynoutria japonica'', and its hybrid with '' R. sachalinensis'', ''R.'' × ''bohemica' ...

. Within the tribe, it is most closely related to the genera ''

'' and ''

Muehlenbeckia ''Muehlenbeckia'' or maidenhair is a genus of flowering plants in the family Polygonaceae. It is native to the borders of the Pacific, including South and North America, Papua New Guinea and Australasia. It has been introduced elsewhere, includin ...

'', forming the so-called "RMF clade".

Species

Plants of the World Online Plants of the World Online (POWO) is an online taxonomic database published by the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew. History Following the Convention on Biological Diversity, the Royal Botanic Gardens in Kew launched Plants of the World Online i ...

accepted 12 species. *'' Fallopia aubertii'' (L.Henry) Holub – silver lace vine; China *'' Fallopia baldschuanica'' (Regel) Holub ( syn. ''Polygonum baldschuanicum'') – Russian vine, mile-a-minute vine, fleece vine, fleece flower;

Eastern Asia East Asia is a geocultural region of Asia. It includes China, Japan, Mongolia, North Korea, South Korea, and Taiwan, plus two special administrative regions of China, Hong Kong and Macau. The economies of China, Japan, South Korea, and Taiwan ...

*'' Fallopia convolvulus'' (L.) Á.Löve (syns ''Polygonum convolvulus'', ''Bilderdykia convolvulus'') – black-bindweed;

Europe Europe is a continent located entirely in the Northern Hemisphere and mostly in the Eastern Hemisphere. It is bordered by the Arctic Ocean to the north, the Atlantic Ocean to the west, the Mediterranean Sea to the south, and Asia to the east ...

, Asia, northern

Africa Africa is the world's second-largest and second-most populous continent after Asia. At about 30.3 million km2 (11.7 million square miles) including adjacent islands, it covers 20% of Earth's land area and 6% of its total surfac ...

. *'' Fallopia cristata'' (Engelm. ex A.Gray) Holub – eastern and central United States *'' Fallopia cynanchoides'' (Hemsl.) Haraldson (syn. ''Polygonum cynanchoides'') – western

China China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. With population of China, a population exceeding 1.4 billion, it is the list of countries by population (United Nations), second-most populous country after ...

*'' Fallopia dentatoalata'' (F.Schmidt) Holub (syn. ''Polygonum dentatoalatum'') – Eastern Asia *'' Fallopia dumetorum'' (L.) Holub (syns ''Polygonum dumetorum'', ''Bilderdykia dumetorum'') – copse bindweed, small-flower knotweed; Europe, Asia, northern Africa *'' Fallopia filipes'' (H.Hara) Holub – Nepal *'' Fallopia koreana'' B.U.Oh & J.G.Kim – Korean knotweed; Korea *'' Fallopia pterocarpa'' (Meisn.) Holub (syn. ''Polygonum pterocarpum'') – Southern Asia *'' Fallopia scandens'' (L.) Holub (syns ''Polygonum scandens'', ''Reynoutria scandens'') – climbing false buckwheat; North America *'' Fallopia schischkinii'' Tzvelev – Russian Far East

Former species

Many species at one time placed in ''Fallopia'' have been moved to other genera in the subfamily

. Some synonyms are listed below. *''Fallopia'' × ''bohemica'' → ''Reynoutria'' × ''bohemica'', Bohemian knotweed. *''Fallopia ciliinodis'' (Michx.) Holub – fringed black bindweed → '' Polygonum ciliinode'' *''Fallopia denticulata'' (C.C.Huang) Holub → '' Pteroxygonum denticulatum'' *''Fallopia japonica'' Houtt. – Japanese knotweed → ''

Reynoutria japonica ''Reynoutria japonica'', synonyms ''Fallopia japonica'' and ''Polygonum cuspidatum'', is a species of herbaceous perennial plant in the knotweed and buckwheat family Polygonaceae. Common names include Japanese knotweed and Asian knotweed. It is ...

'' *''Fallopia sachalinensis'' – giant knotweed → '' Reynoutria sachalinensis''

Hybrids

Crosses between Japanese knotweed and giant knotweed have occurred where the two species grow in close proximity. The hybrid, ×''Reyllopia conollyana'' (''

'' × '' Fallopia baldschuanica'') is called railway-yard knotweed.

Distribution

''Fallopia'' species are native to much of the

, including most of

Eurasia Eurasia ( , ) is a continental area on Earth, comprising all of Europe and Asia. According to some geographers, Physical geography, physiographically, Eurasia is a single supercontinent. The concept of Europe and Asia as distinct continents d ...

North Africa North Africa (sometimes Northern Africa) is a region encompassing the northern portion of the African continent. There is no singularly accepted scope for the region. However, it is sometimes defined as stretching from the Atlantic shores of t ...

and central and eastern

North America North America is a continent in the Northern Hemisphere, Northern and Western Hemisphere, Western hemispheres. North America is bordered to the north by the Arctic Ocean, to the east by the Atlantic Ocean, to the southeast by South Ameri ...

. They have been widely introduced elsewhere including eastern and southern Africa, eastern North America, including

Mexico Mexico, officially the United Mexican States, is a country in North America. It is the northernmost country in Latin America, and borders the United States to the north, and Guatemala and Belize to the southeast; while having maritime boundar ...

, and parts of

South America South America is a continent entirely in the Western Hemisphere and mostly in the Southern Hemisphere, with a considerably smaller portion in the Northern Hemisphere. It can also be described as the southern Subregion#Americas, subregion o ...

Ecology

''Fallopia'' species are used as food plants by the

larva A larva (; : larvae ) is a distinct juvenile form many animals undergo before metamorphosis into their next life stage. Animals with indirect development such as insects, some arachnids, amphibians, or cnidarians typically have a larval phase ...

e of some

Lepidoptera Lepidoptera ( ) or lepidopterans is an order (biology), order of winged insects which includes butterflies and moths. About 180,000 species of the Lepidoptera have been described, representing 10% of the total described species of living organ ...

species including '' Coleophora therinella'' (recorded on ''F. convolvulus'').

References

External links

{{Taxonbar, from=Q927544 Polygonaceae genera