Garden

Identify mystery pink plant

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Credit: Tara Warne

Q: Could one of the GardenWise experts please help me to identify this plant?

It is upright vase, deciduous, growing in part sun to a height of 8ft in very moist boggy soil. The stalks are cane-like, striped green,pink and white. The leaves are ovate with an entire slightly undulating edge, which is variegated or mottled mid green,light green and creamy white. It has a pink petiole and pink veins. We are in zone 9a.

It’s definitely a Persicaria, probably Persicaria virginiana Variegata Group. They are probably grown from seed and variable, hence the “Group” designation, rather than a true cultivar [clone].

The cultivar ‘Painter’s Palette’ is closely related, but with some pink on the leaf as well.

This bunch of plants used to be called Tovara virginiana AND/OR Polygonum virginianum, but they are now in the genus Persicaria.

Closely related to the highly invasive Polygonum cuspidatum. A-Z notes that this species can also be invasive, but it’s not on my noxious weed lists.