Originally from the Himalayas, this little plant is a recent introduction into Ireland. It is an extremely pretty little sprawling, creeping, glandular-hairy perennial plant with round, dense, terminal heads of tiny, pale-pink, 5-tepalled flowers (1mm) on branching brownish-red stems which only grow to about 50cm. The distinctive leaves are ovate-elliptic with central red stems and they each have a dark-red or brown chevron across the centre. The veins are also red and plainly marked. It is clearly not a native plant and is a member of the Polygonaceae or Knotweed family. It flowers from May to August.
I first saw this plant growing along pavements and gutters in Newport, Co Mayo in July 2014 when I also photographed it. I think it may have escaped from window-boxes and was doing extremely well in spreading itself.
If you are satisfied you have correctly identified this plant, please submit your sighting to the National Biodiversity Data Centre
