Florapass
English
Epilobium ciliatum

Epilobium ciliatum

Epilobium ciliatum

Identify the Epilobium ciliatum from a photo and log your finds with Florapass.

Coming soon to the App Store and Google Play.

How common: Common

Invasive alien species

Epilobium ciliatum is a tall, upright willowherb from North America that has spread widely with people. It often appears in disturbed, damp places such as gardens, ditches, shores and roadsides. In late summer it bears small white flowers followed by long pods packed with wind-borne seeds.

Did you know?

  • Each seed carries a little tuft of silk that works like a parachute.
  • It overwinters as a low circle of thick leaves at the base.

About the species

Identification

Upright perennial 30–100 cm, sometimes taller. Stem angular, often reddish, smooth below but rough with tiny curved hairs near the top; unbranched or with straight side branches. A circle of thick leaves sits at the base over winter. Stem leaves are short-stalked, oval with sharp teeth, clean green, mostly in pairs; near the flowers they turn more spiral. Flowers are small and white (rarely pale pink), with four petals; in the centre the single tip is club-shaped. After flowering, long narrow pods 5–8 cm split to release many tiny seeds with silky fluff. Similar to other willowherbs; the white tiny flowers and club-tipped centre help tell it apart. Flowers in Finland from July to August.

Plant group

Herbaceous plants

Habitat

yards and roadsides, shore

Flowering

Jul–Aug

About the habitat

Disturbed, often moist ground: gardens, yards, flowerbeds, ditches, stream and lake edges, roadsides, clearings and waste ground. Common in southern Finland, becoming rarer northward up to around Oulu; an established alien species.

Sources

Photo: Alice Shanks, CC BY 4.0 https://www.gbif.org/occurrence/5938622574

Text: Pinkka: A Pohjolan kasveja - Dactylis-Epilobium, CC BY 4.0 https://laji.fi/taxon/MX.39100

Text: Pinkka: Kasvitieteen retkeily Lammille - Pähkinärinne ja lehtokasvillisuutta Pääjärven rannalla, Linnavuoren lehtorinne, CC BY 4.0 https://laji.fi/taxon/MX.39100

Text: FinBIF species descriptions, CC BY 4.0 https://laji.fi/taxon/MX.39100

Text: Wikipedia (Finnish), CC BY-SA 4.0 https://fi.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vaalea-amerikanhorsma

See also