Common Name: LOOSESTRIFE FAMILY Habit: Annual, perennial herb, shrub, tree. Stem: 4-angled or cylindric. Leaf: simple, entire, generally opposite, 4-ranked (alternate, whorled). Inflorescence: flowers terminal or in axils of upper leaves or leaf-like bracts, 1 or in +- dense cymes or along short shoots, sessile or not, subtended by [0]2 bractlets. Flower: bisexual, generally radial; hypanthium bell-shaped to cylindric, membranous or leathery, persistent in fruit; sepals appearing as hypanthium lobes, 4--9, epicalyx lobes alternate sepals or 0; petals, stamens inserted on inner hypanthium; petals 4--6 or 0, alternate sepals, crinkled, deciduous; stamens generally = or 2 × sepals, included or exserted; ovary generally superior, chambers 2--6[many], style generally slender, stigma head-like. Fruit: dry capsule or leathery berry, dehiscent into 2--4 valves or irregularly. Seed: 3--many. Genera In Family: +- 28 genera, 600 species: temperate, tropics, generally in wet habitats. Some ornamental or cultivated for medicine, dyes. Note: "Epicalyx lobes" (lobes on calyx) formerly called "appendages," "hypanthium" in Lythraceae (and Onagraceae) including receptacle, sometimes called "flower cup" or "flower tube". Punicaceae (Punica) included here. eFlora Treatment Author: Shirley A. Graham Scientific Editor: Thomas J. Rosatti.
Common Name: LOOSESTRIFE Habit: Annual, perennial herb. Stem: prostrate to erect, often 4-angled. Leaf: opposite, alternate, or whorled, linear to ovate or obovate, petiole 0 to short. Inflorescence: flowers generally 1--2 per axil, sessile or not. Flower: radial to +- bilateral, of 1--3 style forms (heterostylous); hypanthium cylindric or bell-shaped, ribs generally conspicuous; sepals 4--6, deltate, epicalyx lobes < to > sepals; petals 4--6 or 0; stamens 4--6 or 12, included or exserted; styles < to > stamens. Fruit: capsule, generally cylindric, rarely spheric, valves 2. Seed: many, < 1 mm. Etymology: (Greek: clotted blood, from use of Lythrum salicaria, the first named sp., to stop hemorrhaging, according to Gerard, Bull Torrey Bot Club 12: 60. 1885) Reference: Houghton-Thompson et al. 2005 Ann Bot (London) 96:877--885
Lythrum californicum Torr. & A. Gray
NATIVE Habit: Perennial herb, heterostylous. Stem: erect, 2--6 dm, gray-glaucous; branches many, above. Leaf: 1--7 cm, +- gray-glaucous, lower opposite, linear to lance-linear, upper alternate, linear. Inflorescence: flowers 1--2 per axil, pedicel 1--3 mm. Flower: of 2 style forms; hypanthium 4--7 mm, cylindric, 2--3 × longer than wide; sepals < 1 mm, epicalyx lobes < to > sepals, horn-like; petals 4--8 mm, purple; stamens generally 6, included or exserted; style included or exserted. Fruit: ovoid, +- = hypanthium. Chromosomes: 2n=20. Ecology: Marshes, pond and stream margins; Elevation: < 2200 m. Bioregional Distribution: s NCoRI, SNF, s SNH, GV, CW, SW, W&I, D; Distribution Outside California: to central United States, northern Mexico. Flowering Time: Apr--Sep Synonyms: Lythrum alatum Pursh var. linearifolium A. Gray; Lythrum sanfordii Greene Jepson eFlora Author: Shirley A. Graham Reference: Houghton-Thompson et al. 2005 Ann Bot (London) 96:877--885 Index of California Plant Names (ICPN; linked via the Jepson Online Interchange) Previous taxon: Lythrum Next taxon: Lythrum hyssopifolia
Botanical illustration including Lythrum californicum
Citation for this treatment: Shirley A. Graham 2012, Lythrum californicum, in Jepson Flora Project (eds.) Jepson eFlora, https://ucjeps.berkeley.edu/eflora/eflora_display.php?tid=32397, accessed on April 19, 2024.
Citation for the whole project: Jepson Flora Project (eds.) 2024, Jepson eFlora, https://ucjeps.berkeley.edu/eflora/, accessed on April 19, 2024.
Geographic subdivisions for Lythrum californicum:
s NCoRI, SNF, s SNH, GV, CW, SW, W&I, D
MAP CONTROLS 1. You can change the display of the base map layer control box in the upper right-hand corner.
2. County and Jepson Region polygons can be turned off and on using the check boxes.
(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.
MAP LEGEND View all CCH records 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.
Yellow markers indicate records that may provide evidence for eFlora range revision or may have georeferencing or identification issues.
READ ABOUT YELLOW FLAGS
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).
