Eastern Forest Threat Center - Mile-A-Minute Weed

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Mile-a-minute weed foliage

Mile-a-minute weed foliage

Leslie Mehrhoff, University of Connecticut, Bugwood.org

Mile-A-Minute Weed
Persicaria perfoliata

Mile-a-minute weed is native to India and Eastern Asia.

Keywords: Polygonaceae, herbaceous, annual, trailing vine, red stems, barbs, triangular leaves, ocreas, segmented fruits; Common names: devil’s tail, tear thumb

Distribution Map Distribution Source Image

Threat Description

Mile-a-minute weed is an herbaceous, annual, trailing vine in the buckwheat family. Light green colored leaves shaped like equilateral triangles alternate along narrow, delicate, reddish stems that are armed with downward pointing hooks or barbs. Distinctive circular, cup-shaped leafy structures, called ocreas, surround the stem at intervals. Flower buds, and later flowers and fruits, emerge from within the ocreas. Flowers are small, white, and generally inconspicuous. Fruits are attractive, metallic blue, and segmented. Each segment contains a single glossy black or reddish-black seed. Mile-a-minute weed generally colonizes open and disturbed areas, rights-of-way, edges of woods, wetlands, stream banks, roadsides, and uncultivated open fields. It also occurs in environments that are extremely wet with poor soil structure. It can tolerate shade for part of the day, but needs a good percentage of available light. Mile-a-minute weed grows rapidly, scrambling over shrubs and other vegetation, blocking the foliage of covered plants from available light, and reducing their ability to photosynthesize, which stresses and weakens them. It is a threat to forest regeneration.