Angiosperms (Flowering Plants) • Earth.com

Tufted loosestrife

(Lysimachia thyrsiflora)

galery
en

Description

Lysimachia thyrsiflora, the tufted loosestrife, is a plant in the genus Lysimachia. It is native to large sections of the northern Northern Hemisphere, including Eurasia and North America. It often grows in marshes, shorelines of lakes and ponds and occasionally along streams. It is an erect perennial herb growing up to 80 centimeters tall and bearing yellow flowers, sometimes dotted with purple. It may be confused with purple loosestrife when not blooming but can be easily distinguished because purple loosestrife has a square stem. Tufted loosestrife has been used medicinally in Asia to combat high blood pressure. It is a rare species in Britain, where it is found in Salix cinerea - Galium palustre wet woodland (community W1 of the British National Vegetation Classification system), Salix pentandra - Carex rostrata wet woodland (NVC community W3) and Carex rostrata - Sphagnum recurvum mire (community M4). Lysimachia is a genus consisting of 193 accepted species of flowering plants traditionally classified in the family Primulaceae. Based on a molecular phylogenetic study it was transferred to the family Myrsinaceae, before this family was later merged into the Primulaceae. Lysimachia species often have yellow flowers, and grow vigorously. They tend to grow in damp conditions. Several species within Lysimachia are commonly called loosestrife, although this name is also used for plants within the genus Lythrum. The genus is named in honor of Lysimachus, a king of ancient Sicily, who is said to have calmed a mad ox by feeding it a member of the genus. Lysimachia species are used as food plants by the larvae of some butterflies and moths, including the dot moth, grey pug, lime-speck pug, small angle shades, and v-pug. Bees of the genus Macropis are specialized to pollinate oil-producing Lysimachia plants. These bees use exclusively Lysimachia floral oils for building their nests and provisioning cells. Lysimachia floral-specific chemicals are strong attractors for Macropis nuda and Macropis fulvipes bees that are seldom found in other plant genera. Several fossil seeds of Lysimachia sp. have been described from middle Miocene strata of the Fasterholt area near Silkeborg in Central Jutland, Denmark. †Lysimachia nikitinii seed fossils have been collected from Pliocene strata of south eastern Belarus. The fossils are most similar to seeds of the East Asian Lysimachia davurica.

Taxonomic tree:

Domain:
Kingdom: Plantae
Phylum: Magnoliophyta
Class: Magnoliopsida
Order:Ericales
Family:Primulaceae
Genus:Lysimachia
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