The open plant encyclopedia
Snap a photo or search by any name to see how to care for it, where it comes from, whether it's safe, and a 3D model you can turn.
The plants people record most in your country, and ones that grow there wild.
Filter by what you want to do, shape, origin, country, care and safety.
Bistorta vivipara
Also called Serpent Grass, Viviparous Bistort, Viviparous Knotweed, Alpine Knotweed
A low perennial herb of cold mountain and Arctic meadows, usually grown in rock gardens or alpine collections. It reproduces mainly by bulbils rather than seed, and it is slow to establish.
Bistorta vivipara (synonym Persicaria vivipara) is a perennial herbaceous flowering plant in the knotweed and buckwheat family Polygonaceae, commonly known as alpine bistort. Scientific synonyms include Bistorta vivipara and Polygonum viviparum. It is common all over the high Arctic through Europe, North America, incl. Greenland, and temperate and tropical Asia. Its range stretches further south in high mountainous areas such as the Alps, Carpathians, Pyrenees, Caucasus, Alaska and the Tibetan Plateau.
Alpine bistort grows in many different plant communities, very often in abundance. Typical habitats include moist short grassland, yards, the edges of tracks, and nutrient-rich fens.
The bulbils can be stripped from the lower flower stalks and eaten raw. The young roots are edible raw, while older ones must be cooked. The young leaves can be eaten raw or cooked.
Himalayan Fleeceflower · American bistort · Adderwort · Bistorta vacciniifolia
Text excerpted from the Wikipedia article Bistorta vivipara by its contributors, under CC BY-SA 4.0; the excerpts and the care summary drawn from them are shared under the same licence.
The care summary was written by AI (Claude, Anthropic) from the sources on this page, with general growing knowledge where they are silent. Check before relying on it.
Life form, climate and native range: World Checklist of Vascular Plants, Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew (CC BY 3.0), reformatted; see Plants of the World Online.
