Asian jumpseed is an East Asian shade perennial with tiny crimson to pink flowers spaced along thin, arching spikes, sold as a shade-garden plant. It has escaped from gardens in the Mid-Atlantic states, including Maryland and Virginia, where it is tracked as an emerging invasive and is often confused with native American jumpseed.
Appearance
- Growth form
- A perennial up to about 2½ ft (75 cm) tall.
- Leaves
- Alternate leaves, widest toward the tip with a wedge-shaped base. They often carry a dark maroon, pink, or dark green V-shaped , and some garden forms are variegated with cream or white.
- Flowers
- Tiny crimson to pink flowers spaced along thin, arching spikes.
- Flowering time
- Mid-summer to early fall
Look-alikes
American jumpseed almost always has greenish-white flowers, and its narrower leaves have a rounded base and a long tip; any chevron is fuzzy-edged and fades on older leaves. Asian jumpseed has reddish-pink flowers and leaves widest near the tip.
Why they get mixed upAsian jumpseed was once treated as a variety of the native plant, and the two may hybridize.
Where it lives
- Typical habitats
- shady gardens
- forest edges
- floodplain woods
- Range
- Native to East Asia, including Japan, Korea, and China. In the US it's spreading from gardens in Baltimore County, Maryland, and Arlington County, Virginia, and elsewhere in the mid-Atlantic, with reports from Ohio and Massachusetts.
- Preferred conditions
- Grows in part shade in upland forests and floodplains.
- Flowering
Flowers Jul–Sep
Flowers Jul–Sep
Life cycle
- Seed dispersal
- The seeds sit in small hooked fruits that can jump up to 10 ft (3 m) when the plant is brushed — the source of the name jumpseed. They also catch on animal fur and travel in water.
Growing it
- Care
- Sold for shade gardens, often as the variegated cultivar 'Painter's Palette'.
Name and classification
- About the name
- Formerly called Antenoron filiforme, and once treated as a variety of American jumpseed.
Conservation
- IUCN Red List
- NENot EvaluatedNot yet assessed
- Threats
- Where it escapes, it can form dense patches that shade out native plants. Deer and other plant-eaters rarely eat it, so they browse the natives instead. It may also cross with native American jumpseed.
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