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Lythrum hyssopifolia


Higher Taxonomy
Family: LythraceaeView DescriptionDichotomous Key
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.
Genus: LythrumView DescriptionDichotomous Key


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 hyssopifolia L.
NATURALIZED
Habit: Annual or short-lived perennial herb, not heterostylous. Stem: 1--6 dm; lower branches decumbent to ascending or erect, glabrous, upper few. Leaf: 0.5--3 cm, +- erect, +- glaucous, lower opposite, oblong to elliptic, upper generally alternate, linear. Inflorescence: flowers 1 per axil, sessile. Flower: hypanthium 4--6 mm, cylindric, 4--5 × longer than wide; epicalyx lobes awl-like, +- 2 × > sepals; petals 2--5 mm, pink to rose; stamens 4--6, included; style +- exserted. Fruit: ovoid-oblong, >= hypanthium. Chromosomes: 2n=20.
Ecology: Marshes, drying pond margins, disturbed ground; Elevation: < 1600 m. Bioregional Distribution: CA-FP; Distribution Outside California: to Canada, eastern United States; native to Europe. Flowering Time: Apr--Oct
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)
View the CDFA Pest Rating page for Lythrum hyssopifolia
Weed listed by Cal-IPC

Previous taxon: Lythrum californicum
Next taxon: Lythrum portula

Botanical illustration including Lythrum hyssopifoliabotanical illustration including Lythrum hyssopifolia


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Citation for this treatment: Shirley A. Graham 2012, Lythrum hyssopifolia, in Jepson Flora Project (eds.) Jepson eFlora, https://ucjeps.berkeley.edu/eflora/eflora_display.php?tid=32401, accessed on December 02, 2024.

Citation for the whole project: Jepson Flora Project (eds.) 2024, Jepson eFlora, https://ucjeps.berkeley.edu/eflora/, accessed on December 02, 2024.

Lythrum hyssopifolia
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©2001 Julie Kierstead Nelson
Lythrum hyssopifolia
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©2014 Vernon Smith
Lythrum hyssopifolia
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©2007 Carol W. Witham
Lythrum hyssopifolia
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©2008 Keir Morse
Lythrum hyssopifolia
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©2009 Keir Morse

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Geographic subdivisions for Lythrum hyssopifolia:
CA-FP
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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 occurrence).






 

Data provided by the participants of the  Consortium of California Herbaria.

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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 Flowering-Fruiting Monthly Counts

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).