The correspondence of Ferdinand von Mueller: This gigantic Knot Herb is likely to be often confused with the Japanese Polygonum euspidatum, ¶ Typesetter's error for Polygonum cuspidatum? ¶ which by Professor von Siebold was discovered and by th...

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94.11.00

Plant names

Cytisus prolifer
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Fagopyrum
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Polygonum euspidatum
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Polygonum sacchalinense
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Symphytum
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Preferred Citation:

Ferdinand von Mueller to the Leader, 1894-11. R.W. Home, Thomas A. Darragh, A.M. Lucas, Sara Maroske, D.M. Sinkora, J.H. Voigt and Monika Wells (eds), Correspondence of Ferdinand von Mueller, <https://vmcp.rbg.vic.gov.au/id//letters/1890-6/1894/94-11-00-final.odt>, accessed June 4, 2026

Letter not found. The text given here is from 'A new forage plant', Leader, 17 November 189, p. 12 (B94.11.06). The article discusses (more usually spelled P. sachalinense), being promoted as a new forage plant by a French experimenter. The article concludes with M's text, which is introduced by 'Baron von Mueller adds the following notes:—'.

This gigantic Knot Herb is likely to be often confused with the Japanese ,

Typesetter's error for Polygonum cuspidatum?

which by Professor von Siebold was discovered and by that distinguished explorer and naturalist likewise recommended as a forage plant. Mr. R. Engelhardt, in the Erfurt Gaertner Zeitung , sets well out the distinctions of the two, as the P. euspidatum has long been cultivated as a scent plant in gardens, and produces also offshoots from the perennial roots, which, while young, are used as a substitute for asparagus. This plant is a native of southern Japan, and may, perhaps, therefore not bear quite the extremes of frost which are endured by P. sacchalinense. The numerous stems attain in spring quickly great heights, up to 10 feet; the leaves are long stalked, not so long as those of the true P. sacchalinense and neither heart shaped at the base nor bluish green beneath. Both these plants have, irrespective of fodder culture, been employed to fix railway embankments and any other loose soils on steep declivities. As the foliage of the Polygonums is mostly tender, and as regards the plants under consideration not acrid, these two will likely have a great rural future, and more so in regard to climate and soil than the gigantic s and , as they only thrive under peculiar conditions. We have a good example of what Polygonareous plants can do for pasturage in the buckwheats ( s), which receive far too little agricultural attention here. Fresh seeds of , procured by me from plants cultivated in Europe, and other lots secured from plants in Japan, were distributed by me many months ago here. I send you some herewith. Sacchalinense seems to prosper on ground appearing ever so forbidding, but I doubt whether it will do well in regions subject to excessive heat and dryness.