Lythraceae
Lythrum salicaria
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Flower
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Petal
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Useful
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Herb |
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Purple Loosestrife on:
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| Other Names for this Plant |
Blooming Sally, Lythrum, Partyke, Purple Willow Herb, Rainbow Weed, Sage Willow, Salicaire
Origin & Range: Native to Europe & Asia. Europe, including Britain, Russian and Central Asia, Australia, North America
This handsome perennial, 2 to 4 feet in height, has a creeping rhizome, four to six angled, erect, reddish-brown stems, lanceolate leaves from 3 to 6 inches long, entire, sometimes opposite, sometimes in whorls clasping the stem, with reddish purple or pink flowers in whorls forming terminal spikes. It grows in wet or marshy places, varying in different districts in the comparative lengths of stamens and styles, color of flowers and pollen grains. It is odorless, with an astringent taste |
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What's This?
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Order of Myrtles |
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Main, Real, Two First-Leaves (Dicots) |
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Real, Two First-Leaves (Dicots) |
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Half Capsule Seed Division |
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Magnolia Division |
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Seed Plants |
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Multiple Spore Sub-Kingdom |
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Multicellular Land Plants |
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Cells with a Nucleus |
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Considered an invasive, noxious weed
Purple loosestrife was introduced to the northeastern U.S. and Canada in the 1800s, for ornamental and medicinal uses. It is still widely sold as an ornamental, except in states such as Minnesota, Wisconsin, and Illinois where regulations now prohibit its sale, purchase, and distribution.
acts as a typhus antibiotic, a sore throat gargle, and is given for fever and liver problems.
Although scarcely used at present, Loosestrife has been highly esteemed by many herbalists. It is well established in chronic diarrhea and dysentery, and is used in leucorrhoea and blood-spitting. In Switzerland the decoction was used successfully in an epidemic of dysentery. It has also been employed in fevers, liver diseases, constipation and cholera infantum, and for outward application to wounds and sores.
The leaves are eaten as an emergency. Used as a vegetable and fermented into a mild alcohol
The red-winged blackbird will nest in purple loosestrife stands. The long-billed marsh wren, the major factor in red-winged blackbird nesting mortality, avoids purple loosestrife This avoidance creates a safe nesting site for the blackbirds. Purple loosestrife seeds are not considered part of the diet of the red-winged blackbird
Purple Loosestrife
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Purple Loosestrife
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Purple Loosestrife
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| Comment:
Purple Loosestrife, Lythrum salicaria |
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