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When identifying this plant, first I wanted to identify to family. This plant contained an ocrea, when the stipules are connately fused together, and the ocrea is only present in the Polygonaceae family. This plant did look similar to Persicaria pensylvanica but this plant was lower to the ground and not as tall as P. pensylvanica. This plant’s inflorescence was a dense, spike-like raceme and each flower had five pink-white tepals. Because of these key features, I identified this plant to Persicaria longiseta.

I am calling this tree a hybrid because the leaves were slightly lustrous and only hairy underneath on the veins. But it much more strongly resembles M. rubra than M. alba. I wonder if the dramatic difference in leaf size has anything to do with hybrid status.