• Found in a variety of places
  
• Most species like wet habitats, including roadsides and ditches
  

• 46 species in the genus Polygonum in northeastern North America
  
• Specific species are hard to tell apart, but can be broadly classified into two categories: Smartweeds (in which the flowers are in spike-like terminal clusters) or Knotweeds (in which the flowers are clustered in the leaf axils)
  
• Vary in size by species
  

• Simple leaves
  
• Polygonum are identifiable by a thicker section on the stem at each leaf joint
  
• Leaf base forms a kind of sheath over stem where they join
  

• June-November, depending on species
  
• Most are pink or white, although there are some green
  
• Tight terminal clusters of tiny flowers (smartweeds) or smaller clusters nested in leaf axils (knotweeds)
  

Leaves can be used to make a dye.