| Author | (L.) A. Gray | |
| Distribution | Nearly throughout the state, but absent from most coastal areas, especially so north of New Hanover County.
This is a widespread species, from southern Canada south to central FL and central TX. | |
| Abundance | Common in the Mountains, Piedmont, and the northwestern half of the Coastal Plain; infrequent in the southern Coastal Plain, though present in most counties. Very rare to absent in eastern counties. | |
| Habitat | This is a wetland species of many habitats, often found with the fairly closely related Boehmeria cylindrica. It grows in muddy or damp/wet ground of marsh edges, ditches, openings and edges of bottomlands and swamps, and around pool margins. It also can grow in oligohaline coastal marshes. |
| Phenology | Blooms in August and September, and fruits from September to November. | |
| Identification | This is an erect species growing to about 1-1.5 feet tall, often in dense stands. It has a smooth and somewhat translucent stem, simply or branched. The opposite leaves have long petioles, often 1-2 inches long, and the blade is ovate, very serrated on the margins, deeply 3-nerved, and very shiny on the upper side; the blade is about 3-4 inches long and 1/2 as wide. The flower clusters grow in middle and upper leaf axils; they are rather short, in cymes; the similar Boehmeria has clusters long and slender, often 2 inches long, and it has dull leaves above. P. fontana is quite similar and is easily overlooked. The latter species is much less common, and it has pebbled, blackish nutlets, as long as broad, as opposed to smooth green nutlets longer than broad in P. pumila. In general, P. fontana has the stems more opaque, the upper sides of the leaves less shiny, and the petiole is rather short compared to the blade length. | |
| Taxonomic Comments | None
| |
| Other Common Name(s) | Greenfruit Clearweed, Richweed, Clearweed, Canada Clearweed | |
| State Rank | S5 | |
| Global Rank | G5 | |
| State Status | | |
| US Status | | |
| USACE-agcp | FACW link |
| USACE-emp | FACW link |
