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Yellow Loosestrife

Yellow Loosestrife

Lysimachia vulgaris

Identify the Yellow Loosestrife from a photo and log your finds with Florapass.

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How common: Very common

Yellow Loosestrife is a tall, bright yellow wildflower of damp places. It often forms wide, dense patches along shores and wet meadows. Its loose, branching head of many small yellow flowers stands above paired or circling leaves on a reddish stem.

Did you know?

  • Spreads quickly by long underground runners, forming large colonies.
  • The flowers are rich in pollen and attract many insects.

About the species

Identification

Perennial, 50–160 cm. Upright, often reddish-brown, softly hairy stem. Leaves 5–10 cm, with smooth edges, narrow-oval and sharp-tipped; they sit in pairs or in circles of 3–4 and may show tiny dark dots. Many small yellow, open star-like flowers (8–16 mm) in a loose, branched cluster at the top; the small green parts behind the petals have reddish-brown edges. Fruit a small round capsule. Tell it from garden loosestrife (Lysimachia punctata), which has yellow flowers in tiers along the stem, not mainly in a loose top cluster. Flowers in Finland from June to August.

Plant group

Herbaceous plants

Habitat

shore

Flowering

Jun–Aug

About the habitat

Grows by lake and river edges, on wet meadows, along ditches and streams, in damp woodland and rich fens, and sometimes by roadsides. Common throughout Finland except Lapland.

Sources

Photo: (Hans Hillewaert), CC BY-SA 3.0 https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Lysimachia vulgaris (flower).jpg

Text: Pinkka: BIO-503 Suomen kasvisto ja kasvillisuus - Sisävedet: rantaniityt, CC BY 4.0 https://laji.fi/taxon/MX.38670

Text: Pinkka: Pieni maatalouslajintuntemus - Puuvartiset, CC BY 4.0 https://laji.fi/taxon/MX.38670

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

See also