This is a Stanley Park planting, on the Magnolia Walk next to the golf course. Part of the shrub is under knee-high, but part of it is around 6' high. Stems are red, leaves alternate, entire leaf margins, very marked opposite narrow veining, hairs on top and bottom, bottoms are whitish. It's in bloom now (early October) but I don't know when it came into bloom, tiny (1 cm) flowers are pinkish white, cup-shaped with 5-scalloped edges, in racemes growing from the leaf axils. I tried a couple of keys, but didn't find it. I keep coming up with blueberries but the photos don't match these. I don't know what the fruits are like.
These flowers and particularly the leaves are a lot prettier than any of the knotweed photos I can find. So, Ron, when you say "one of the knotweed species", you mean not the invasive Japanese knotweed, is that right? It wouldn't be the first time I've become enamoured of some noxious weed, but I'm guessing this isn't one.
Looks like Persicaria campanulata. Common name Lesser knotweed. http://images.google.com/images?q=p...1I7SUNA_en-GB&um=1&hl=en&ie=UTF-8&sa=N&tab=wi Sold over here in several nurseries. There is even one sold as P.campanulata alba. http://www.binnyplants.co.uk/galleries.php?show=3574
Thanks, Silver Surfer. I feel better now <grin>. And I see on the Binny pages that one of the other plants I was wondering about is maybe a Persicaria amplex, so that's two for one - how great is that!
