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Vascular Plants of California
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Ludwigia palustris


Higher Taxonomy
Family: OnagraceaeView DescriptionDichotomous Key
Common Name: EVENING-PRIMROSE FAMILY
Habit: Annual to perennial herb (to tree). Leaf: cauline or basal, alternate, opposite, or whorled, generally simple and toothed (to pinnately compound); stipules 0 or generally deciduous. Inflorescence: spike, raceme, panicle, or flowers 1 in axils; bracted. Flower: generally bisexual, generally radial, often opening at either dawn or dusk; hypanthium generally prolonged beyond ovary (measured from ovary tip to sepal base); sepals 4(2--7); petals 4(2--7, rarely 0), often fading darker; stamens 2 × or = sepals in number, anthers 2-chambered, opening lengthwise, pollen interconnected by threads; ovary inferior, chambers generally as many as sepals (sometimes becoming 1), placentas axile or parietal, ovules 1--many per chamber, style 1, stigma 4-lobed (or lobes as many as sepals), club-shaped, spheric, or hemispheric. Fruit: capsule, loculicidal (sometimes berry or indehiscent and nut-like). Seed: sometimes winged or hair-tufted.
Genera In Family: 22 genera, +- 657 species: worldwide, especially western North America; many cultivated (Clarkia, Epilobium, Fuchsia, Oenothera). Note: Gaura moved to Oenothera. Fuchsia magellanica Lam. naturalized in northern California.
eFlora Treatment Author: Warren L. Wagner & Peter C. Hoch, family description, key to genera, treatment of genera by Warren L. Wagner, except as noted
Scientific Editor: Robert W. Patterson, Bruce G. Baldwin.
Genus: LudwigiaView DescriptionDichotomous Key


Common Name: FALSE LOOSESTRIFE, WATER PRIMROSE
Habit: Annual to subshrub or emergent aquatic, often floating, rooting at nodes. Leaf: alternate to opposite. Inflorescence: spike; flowers 1 per bract. Flower: radial; hypanthium 0; sepals 4--5(7), persistent; petals (0)4--5(7), white to yellow; stamens 4 or 10(12), pollen generally shed singly (in California); stigma club-shaped to spheric. Fruit: irregularly dehiscing; wall thick or thin. Seed: free or embedded in woody piece of fruit wall.
Etymology: (C.G. Ludwig, German botanist, physician, 1709--1773) Note: Many polyploids.
eFlora Treatment Author: Peter C. Hoch & Brenda J. Grewell
Reference: Raven 1963 Reinwardtia 6:327--427
Ludwigia palustris (L.) Elliott
NATIVE
Habit: Perennial herb 1--5 dm, matted. Stem: prostrate or ascending, rooting at nodes, well branched, +- glabrous. Leaf: opposite, < 5 cm; blade narrowly elliptic to subovate, entire, +- glabrous. Inflorescence: pedicel 0--0.5 mm. Flower: sepals 4, 1.1--2 mm; petals 0; stamens 4, anthers 0.2--0.4 mm; ovary stripes 4, green. Fruit: erect, 1.5--5 mm, +- oblong, minutely strigose. Seed: 0.5--0.7 mm, free from fruit wall. Chromosomes: 2n=16.
Ecology: Roadside ditches, wet meadows, pond margins; Elevation: < 1000 m. Bioregional Distribution: w NW, n SN, c SNH, SnJV, CCo, SnFrB, SCo; Distribution Outside California: to British Columbia, eastern United States, Central America, northern South America; introduced +- worldwide. Flowering Time: Jun--Sep Note: Highly variable, often weedy.
Synonyms: Ludwigia palustris var. americana (DC.) Fernald & Griscom; Ludwigia palustris var. pacifica Fernald & Griscom
Jepson eFlora Author: Peter C. Hoch & Brenda J. Grewell
Reference: Raven 1963 Reinwardtia 6:327--427
Index of California Plant Names (ICPN; linked via the Jepson Online Interchange)

Previous taxon: Ludwigia hexapetala
Next taxon: Ludwigia peploides

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Botanical illustration including Ludwigia palustris

botanical illustration including Ludwigia palustris

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Citation for this treatment: Peter C. Hoch & Brenda J. Grewell 2012, Ludwigia palustris, in Jepson Flora Project (eds.) Jepson eFlora, https://ucjeps.berkeley.edu/eflora/eflora_display.php?tid=31651, accessed on April 24, 2024.

Citation for the whole project: Jepson Flora Project (eds.) 2024, Jepson eFlora, https://ucjeps.berkeley.edu/eflora/, accessed on April 24, 2024.

Ludwigia palustris
click for enlargement
©2016 Keir Morse
Ludwigia palustris
click for enlargement
©2008 Keir Morse
Ludwigia palustris
click for enlargement
©2016 Keir Morse
Ludwigia palustris
click for enlargement
©2008 Keir Morse
Ludwigia palustris
click for enlargement
©2016 Keir Morse

More photos of Ludwigia palustris
in CalPhotos



Geographic subdivisions for Ludwigia palustris:
w NW, n SN, c SNH, SnJV, CCo, SnFrB, SCo
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map of distribution 1
(Note: any qualifiers in the taxon distribution description, such as 'northern', 'southern', 'adjacent' etc., are not reflected in the map above, and in some cases indication of a taxon in a subdivision is based on a single collection or author-verified occurence).





 

Data provided by the participants of the  Consortium of California Herbaria.
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All markers link to CCH specimen records. The original determination is shown in the popup window.
Blue markers indicate specimens that map to one of the expected Jepson geographic subdivisions (see left map). Purple markers indicate specimens collected from a garden, greenhouse, or other non-wild location.
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CCH collections by month

Duplicates counted once; synonyms included.
Species do not include records of infraspecific taxa, if there are more than 1 infraspecific taxon in CA.
Blue line denotes eFlora flowering time (fruiting time in some monocot genera).