Tall wetland perennial with whorled leaves and branched clusters of golden five-petalled flowers, not related to the magenta plant of the same name
Yellow loosestrife, Lysimachia vulgaris.
Nature · Wildflowers & flowers
Yellow loosestrife
Native · flowers Jul–Sep · riversides, lakesides and wet ground
Lysimachia vulgaris — Primulaceae
A tall, creeping perennial with golden-yellow, five-petalled flowers in branched clusters at the tops of leafy stems, growing along rivers, lakes and marshy hollows. Despite the name it is no relative of purple loosestrife. It is the main plant of a specialist bee that gathers its floral oils.
How to spot them
- ▸Tall, up to 1.5 m, with leaves in whorls of three or four, or in pairs, up the stem
- ▸Bright yellow, five-petalled flowers about 1.5 cm across in branched clusters at the top
- ▸Flower stalks very short — under 1 cm (NatureSpot) — separating it from similar Lysimachia relatives
- ▸Spreads by long underground stems into big patches beside permanent water
- ▸Look-alike: creeping Jenny is a low, trailing plant; dotted loosestrife (Lysimachia punctata) is a garden escape
How to know it
A solitary bee gathers oil from these flowers, instead of nectar, to waterproof its nest cells
Yellow loosestrife — the yellow loosestrife bee, Macropis europaea, is a specialist on Lysimachia flowers.
The plant belongs to the primrose family, and the genus commemorates a king
Lysimachia — after King Lysimachus — yellow loosestrife, in Primulaceae.
Its leaf mines are made by a moth larva, and a sawfly grub is the only one known to eat it
Yellow loosestrife — NatureSpot lists Calybites phasianipennella and Monostegia abdominalis.
Spreads by long, thin underground stems, forming stands in permanently wet places beside rivers and lakes
Yellow loosestrife.
Quick-fire facts
- •Family Primulaceae (moved from Myrsinaceae), the primrose family — it is not related to purple loosestrife
- •NatureSpot: flowers July to September, growing in wet peaty soil beside rivers, lakes and marshes
- •NatureSpot notes it is often planted or escapes from cultivation, so status in some districts is unclear
- •The genus name Lysimachia is traditionally linked to King Lysimachus of Thrace, who is said to have calmed an ox with it
- •The yellow loosestrife bee, Macropis europaea, collects floral oils from it and depends on it
- •Also hosts a sawfly, Monostegia abdominalis, and a moth, Calybites phasianipennella, according to NatureSpot
- •Spreads by underground stems
- •Often confused with garden dotted loosestrife, Lysimachia punctata
Drill it — 6 cards
1 / 6new card
Sources
- NatureSpot — Yellow Loosestrife (Lysimachia vulgaris)