Courtyard and Indoor Americanized Purple Loosestrife Gardens

Summary: Courtyard and indoor Americanized purple loosestrife gardens repress and research European wand loosestrife, Indian toothcup and purple loosestrife.

Non-native purple loosestrife (Lythrum salicaria) now dominates Cooper Marsh Conservation Area, near Cornwall, southeastern Ontario, east central Canada; July 31, 2009: Saffron Blaze, CC BY SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons

The aquaria, confined ponds and contained pools in Americanized purple loosestrife gardens allow appreciation of an aquatic herbaceous perennial that advances through North American waterways in Canada, Mexico and the United States.

Multiple reproduction modes, viral disease transmission and waterlogging tolerances build canal, marsh, river and wetland colonies of purple loosestrife in Canada, Mexico and the United States. Federal and provincial legislation in Canada and state legislation in the United States condemn purple loosestrife's carrying cucumber mosaic virus, clogging waterways and crowding native vegetation. Alabama, Arizona, Arkansas, California, Colorado, Connecticut, Florida, Idaho, Indiana, Iowa, Massachusetts, Minnesota, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, Nevada, New Mexico, North Dakota, Ohio and Oregon disparage purple loosestrife.

Pennsylvania, South Carolina, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas, Utah, Vermont, Virginia, Washington and Wyoming and Alberta, British Columbia, Manitoba, Prince Edward Island and Saskatchewan likewise exclude it.

Hairless, oval, 0.12- to 0.24-inch- (3- to 6-millimeter-) long, 0.08- to 0.12-inch- (2- to 3-millimeter-) wide cotyledons function as embryonic leaves for purple loosestrife's seedling stage.

The perennial native to Europe grows lance-shaped, mature, opposite-arranged or three-whorled, somewhat hairy, stalkless, 1.18- to 3.94-inch- (3- to 10-centimeter-) long foliage with heart-shaped, wide bases. The aquatic herb sometimes has alternate arrangements for leaves within 3.94- to 39.37-inch- (10- to 100-centimeter-) long inflorescences, called racemes, with same-sized stalklets off central stalks. Purple loosestrife, scientifically named Lythrum salicaria (blood willow-like), only includes whorled arrangements of perfect, pink-purple, regular flowers 0.59 to 0.79 inches (15 to 20 millimeters) across.

Every flower in June- to November-blooming Americanized purple loosestrife gardens joins one pistil, four to eight each of petals and sepals and eight to 16 stamens.

Purple loosestrife, nicknamed purple lythrum, rainbow weed and spiked loosestrife, knows 8- 10-, 12-nerved green sepals and 0.28- to 0.39- inch- (7- to 10-millimeter-) long petals.

The flowering herb in the Lythraceae family of loosestrife herbs, shrubs and trees lifts branched, soft-haired, square, 19.68- to 94.49-inch- (50- to 240-centimeter-) tall stems upward. Its sturdy stems manage effective circulation of dissolved hormones and photosynthetic products because its extensive, oxygen-rich, spongy tissue-covered, submerged root system moves dissolved soil nutrients upward. They nourish fruiting stages of dry, explosive, multi-seeded, 0.16- to 0.24-inch- (4- to 6-millimeter-) long, 0.06-inch- (1.5-millimeter-) wide fruits called capsules during expected 22-year life cycles.

Purple loosestrife, described by Råsholt-born Swedish botanist Carl Linnaeus (May 23, 1707-Jan. 10, 1778), offers 900 to 1,000 capsules per plant in Americanized purple loosestrife gardens.

Water and wind sometimes and wildlife always provide the main dispersal means for brown to black, buoyant, lightweight, 0.008- to 0.158-inch- (0.2- to 0.4-millimeter-) long seeds.

The germination of 83 to 130 seeds per capsule, and of 2.7 million seeds per plant, per year quickens at 68 degrees Fahrenheit (20 degrees Celsius). It remains likely for 20-year viable seeds down through temperatures of 57.2 degrees Fahrenheit (14 degrees Celsius) in the top 0.79 inches (2 centimeters) of soil. Its endproduct stresses native swamp loosestrife differentiated by 1.97- to 5.91-inch- (5- to 15-centimeter-) long whorled leaves and 0.39- to 0.59-inch- (10- to 15-millimeter-) long petals.

Aquaria, confined ponds and contained pools tether weed-designated European wand and purple loosestrifes and weedy Indian toothcup to minimum growth-friendly conditions in Americanized purple loosestrife gardens.

purple loosestrife's flowers and leaves: Leslie J. Mehrhoff, University of Connecticut, Bugwood.org, CC BY 3.0, via Forestry Images

Acknowledgment

My special thanks to talented artists and photographers/concerned organizations who make their fine images available on the internet.

Image credits:

Non-native purple loosestrife (Lythrum salicaria) now dominates Cooper Marsh Conservation Area, near Cornwall, southeastern Ontario, east central Canada; July 31, 2009: Saffron Blaze, CC BY SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons @ https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Cooper_Marsh_-_Purple-loosestrife.jpg

purple loosestrife's flowers and leaves: Leslie J. Mehrhoff, University of Connecticut, Bugwood.org, CC BY 3.0, via Forestry Images @ http://www.forestryimages.org/browse/detail.cfm?imgnum=5479711

For further information:

Dickinson, Richard; and Royer, France. 2014. Weeds of North America. Chicago IL; London, England: The University of Chicago Press.

Linnaeus, Carl. 1753. "1. Lythrum salicaria." Species Plantarum, vol. I: 446. Holmiae [Stockholm, Sweden]: Laurentii Salvii [Laurentius Salvius].
Available via Biodiversity Heritage Library @ http://biodiversitylibrary.org/page/358465

"Lythrum salicaria L." Tropicos® > Name Search.
Available @ http://www.tropicos.org/Name/19200254

Modzelevich, Martha. "Lythrum salicaria, Purple Loosestrife, Purple Lythrum, Rainbow Weed, Spiked Loosestrife," Hebrew: שנית גדולה." Flowers in Israel.
Available @ http://www.flowersinisrael.com/lythrumsalicaria_page.htm

Weakley, Alan S.; Ludwig, J. Christopher; and Townsend, John F. 2012. Flora of Virginia. Edited by Bland Crowder. Fort Worth TX: BRIT Press, Botanical Research Institute of Texas.