Al Schneider's Rocky Mountains Plant Descriptions

Fringed Loosestrife
Lysimachia ciliata
Primrose family (Primulaceae)

Fringed Loosestrife is a native North American wildflower, forming an upright mound of green to rich burgundy-purple leaves, studded with starry yellow flowers. (This plant is not related to the invasive Lythrum salicaria, Purple Loosestrife (Lythraceae, Loosestrife Family.) Fringed Loosestrife is often used in wildflower gardens, but care has to be taken with its location as it will spread to form a sizeable patch, sometimes too vigorous. This wildflower reproduces by its seeds or vegetatively through its . This is a relict eastern prairie species. This species was named by Linnaeus in 1753. "Lysis" means "release" and "mache" means "strife," referring to the story that King Lysimachus of Thrace calmed a mad bull by waving this plant in front of it.


©2011 RT Hawke

Description

plant with stems to 3' tall. leaves to 5" long, pointed at tip, rounded, flattened, or almost heart-shape indented at base. margins on leaves. Leaves are but can appear . less than 1" long and very obviously fringed on edges. Flowers solitary or in pairs, on long in axils, on slender nodding stems. about 1/5" long, 1/3 to 1/2" long, yellow, deeply 5-parted, wider at tips. 5-7 and petals. 5 with sterile () between bases of . have 10-20 seeds.

Field Marks

Spreading mats of large green or purple leaves with showy, fringed yellow flowers,

© Al Schneider

stamen -- the pollen-producing reproductive organ of a flower; The stamen consists of an anther supported by a filament.

Staminodes are steril stamens.

A perennial plant lives and blooms for many years.

pedicel -- The stem of a single flower.

lobe -- A rounded parts of a leaf (or other organ).

A herb is a plant whose stems die back to the ground in the winter.

corolla -- The name for all the petals of a flower taken together.

Usually green, sepals typically function as protection for the flower in bud, and often as support for the petals when in bloom.

ciliate -- fringed with hairs

capsule -- a type of simple, dry fruit produced by many species of flowering plants. In most cases the capsule splits apart to release seeds.

filament -- The stalk of a stamen. Other very narrow, thread-like structures.

petiole -- the stalk of a leaf.

whorled -- The leaves are arranged in whorls of 3 or more leaves along the stems of a plant.

alternate -- leaves alternate along the main stem and are attached singly.

glabrous -- smooth, glossy, having no bristles or hair-like structures. Bald.

lanceolate -- Lance-shaped. Long, wider in the middle.

rhizome -- root-like stems that may either grow horizontally at the soil surface or in other orientations underground.