Loosestrife

Loosestrife — Loosestrife is the common name of a number of different flowering plants. The species belong to two taxonomic genera, Lythrum, within the family Lythraceae, and Lysimachia, within the family Primulaceae.

Lythraceae is a family of flowering plants. It includes 500-600 species of mostly herbs, with some shrubs and trees, in 32 genera. Lythraceae have a worldwide distribution, with most species in the tropics but ranging into temperate climate regions as well.

The family is named after the type genus, Lythrum, the loosestrifes (e.g. Lythrum salicaria Purple loosestrife). It now also includes the pomegranate, formerly classed in a separate family Punicaceae. The family also includes the widely cultivated crepe myrtle trees.

The plant may have been one of the 165 or more species now classified in the genus Lysimachia, in the primrose family, Primulaceae. These are mostly leafy-stemmed perennial herbs of wide distribution in temperate regions. L. vulgaris, the common or garden loosestrife, is native to Eurasia but now grows wild in North America. It is a coarse, bushy plant, growing to 1 m (3 ft) or more in height, and bears leafy clusters of dark-margined yellow flowers. The name loosestrife is also applied to several species of plants in the genus Lythrum and to its family, Lythraceae. The purple loosestrife, Lythrum salicaria, which bears a superficial resemblance to several species of Lysimachia, is native to Eurasia but has become naturalized in North America. It is an erect, somewhat downy perennial, growing to 1.8 m (6 ft) in height, with stalkless, narrow leaves and long spikes of red purple flowers. The water willow, Decodon verticillatus, of the same family, is sometimes called the swamp loosestrife. The 75 species of aquatic or marsh plants of the genus Ludwigia, in the evening primrose family, Onagraceae, are collectively called false loosestrifes.