Fallopia scandens
 
False Buckwheat

Achene in Tepals, Cross Section

Highway # 982, Near Intersection With Highway # 9
05-August-2020

The fruit is an achene and is enclosed by the tepals.  Note the wings on the three outer tepals.  The achene is concave triangular in cross section but is not lens-shaped with broad wings.

Scandens: Answers to key questions in Budd's Flora, Vascular Flora of Alberta: An Illustrated Guide, Flora of North America, and University of Saskatchewan Virtual Herbarium of  Plants at Risk in Saskatchewan leading to this species. 

plants perennial or annual; NOT [plants annual]

stems nearly terete; NOT [stems sharply angled]

ocreae bases glabrous or scabrid; NOT [ocreae bases fringed with reflexed hairs and slender bristles]

fruiting tepals to 15 mm long; NOT [fruiting tepals to 5 mm long]

fruiting tepals with (0.7) 1.5-2.1 mm wide wings extending down the stalk, their edges wavy or rippled (rarely flat) and variously lobed or torn (rarely smooth); NOT [fruiting tepals wingless or rarely with 0.4-0.9 mm wide wings]

fruiting tepals glabrous; NOT [fruiting tepals glabrous or with blunt, hyaline hairs]

achenes smooth, shiny; NOT [achenes minutely granular-tuberculate, dull]

 

Fallopia: Answers to key questions in Budd's Flora and Vascular Flora of Alberta: An Illustrated Guide leading to this genus. 

stems twining or sprawling; NOT [stems mostly erect, ascending, not twining]

leaves mainly on the stem; NOT [leaves mostly basal]

leaves broad; NOT [leaves linear, lanceolate or oblong], NOT [leaves round to kidney-shaped]

leaves hastate at base or heart-shaped

leaves with stipules that encircle/sheath the stem (ocreae); NOT [leaves without stipules sheathing the stem]

ocreae never 2-lobed near the tip; NOT [ocreae 2-lobed near the tip]

ocreae papery and thin but not transparent; NOT [ocreae often nearly transparent]

ocreae tan to brownish; NOT [ocreae silvery]

flowers clusters without a whorl of bracts; NOT [flower clusters with whorl of leafy to scale-like bracts at the base]

flowers perfect

tepals 5

outer tepals winged or keeled; NOT [outer tepals neither winged nor keeled]

inner tepals rarely enlarged in fruit; NOT [inner tepals usually enlarged in fruit]

stamens 6-8

achenes completely enclosed  by tepals or barely extending beyond them; NOT [achenes clearly extending beyond the tepals]

achenes more or less unwinged; NOT [achenes lens-shaped, broadly winged]

 

Polygonaceae: Answers to key questions in Budd's Flora  leading to this family. 

herbs; NOT [shrubs or trees]

land plants; NOT [water plants]

plants not parasitic on trees

plants with more than one pair of leaves; NOT [plants with a single pair of large reniform leaves]

leaves alternate; NOT [leaves opposite]

stipules present

stipules forming a sheath above nodes

flowers perfect