I have no idea what this is. Please identify. I'm excited to know. Thanks!

This plant seeded here mid summer and grew with my opium poppies, which like it dry. I live in Zone 5A, Upstate NY in the Northern Catskill Mtn Region. The plant has reddish stalk and reddish/white toned draping flowers. This picture shows it in decline but still close to it original color.

Looks like a kind of Persicaria ☺

Looks a lot like Persicaria lapathifolia..
Curl-Top Smartweed (Persicaria lapathifolia)
https://www.google.be/search?q...

Thank you so much. Rhetorically, I wonder how it got in my tire?
Is this plant something I want around? I do like how it looks.

Has a pretty flower on it but is a weed just the same, spreads by seed. If you want more just leave it be and you'll have more

Weed, I would throw it over a cliff.

The term "weed" is very relative if you love the plant! I grow a lot of "weeds" in my garden! and wildlife benefits from it.
Persicaria lapathifolia has a huge geographical range:
http://www.iucnredlist.org/det...

I do agree with that. I love the tiny wood violet weeds here in my area, they are lush and precious plants little plants. I did not pull them the first season I noticed them, now they are just every where, grass, cracks in sidewalk, planters, my precious ground covers. I may have sounded harsh, and I apologize. But it was out of hating to see anyone end up with such a beautiful plant that looks ugly everywhere. Perhaps yours is not invasive.

Thank you ladies for your opinions. Yes the term "weed" is relative. One has to pick one's battles.

My lawn is mostly weeds. One section is wild thyme. I love mowing there.

I live along a creek. The thicket can be beautiful with wild flowers, dull or nasty. I would like to add the Smartweed to the more dull unidimensional areas.

Would this "invasive" weed squeeze out lets say garlic mustard? Because garlic mustard is sapping my ferns nutrition and they are not growing as tall.

FYI: I feel good about this. "Use and Trade: This species is ground to make a starch to make a pesticide and treat disease in fish. It is also used for human medicinal purposes." http://www.iucnredlist.org/det...

Ok not so much the pesticide but that a non GMO starch is being used and made from this plant is good news. It has plenty of seeds. I have a great interest in plants' medicinal purposes. I believe food is medicine, mostly preventative.

Looking forward to your opinions.

Many natives grow rampantly but are not called invasive because they are in their own territory. A native can't invade its' own territory. Invasive, as a technical term, is used to indicate non-native plants that displace natives and change ecosystems. Whether or not any particular instance of invasion is positive or negative is debatable.

More about invasive species here:
http://www.invasive.org/

A little update on our Smarty Pants Weed. Its been 9 months since I asked for assistance in IDing the plant. I let it run its course as an experiment.




I began to take them out of the tire and then realized I should take a picture. I was going to save some of these plants but thought better of it. I feared it could wipe out all other wild plants with it's success. Had to pull them out one by one or they would take clumps of earth with them and there are small poppy plants growing there too. It took me over an hour. I bagged the seedlings and threw them out.

Must have been a bird that deposited the original seed from who knows where.

I think I'm seeing a faint chevron on some of the leaves. Some kind of Persicaria/Polygonum.

@purpleinopp
What do you mean by "chevron"?

Pictured and described here:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/...