Description: This native perennial wildflower is
1-4' tall, unbranched or sparingly branched, and more or less erect. The
central stem is light green, angular or terete, and glabrous. Pairs of opposite
leaves occur at intervals along the length of each stem. The leaf blades are up
to 6" long and 2½" across; they are medium green, lanceolate to ovate,
hairless, and smooth along their margins. The petioles of the leaves are
up to 1½"
long and conspicuously ciliate. Along the axils of the middle to upper leaves,
individual flowers occur on pedicels up to 3" long; they usually nod downward.
These pedicels are slender, light green, and hairless. Each flower is
½–1" across; it has a green hairless calyx with 5 lanceolate teeth
and a corolla with 5 widely spreading petal-like lobes. The petal-like lobes
are obovate in shape, tapering to slender pointed tips; they are often reddish
near the center of the flower, where the reproduction organs occur. Each flower
has 5 stamens and a slender style. The blooming period occurs from mid-summer
to early fall and lasts about 1½ months. Usually, only a few flowers are
in bloom at the same time. Each flower is replaced by a globoid seed capsule
that is green and shiny; it is surrounded by the spreading teeth of the
persistent calyx. Each capsule contains several seeds. The root system consists
of a taproot and rhizomes. This wildflower reproduces by its seeds or
vegetatively throughout its rhizomes.
Cultivation: The preference is full sun to light
shade, wet to moist conditions, and a fertile loamy soil with organic
matter.
Range & Habitat: Fringed
Loosestrife occurs occasionally in most areas of Illinois (see
Distribution
Map). As compared to the past, populations of this species appear to be
declining. Habitats include moist to wet areas of deciduous woodlands, swamps,
soggy thickets, wet prairies, marshes, seeps, and borders of streams. This
wildflower can be found in sun or shade.
Faunal
Associations: The floral oil and pollen of the flowers attract the
Melittid bee, Macropis steironematis. This bee is a specialist visitor
(oligolege) of Lysimachia spp. It collects the floral oil and pollen for
its larvae. The Halictid bee Lasioglossum versatus has been observed
collecting pollen from the flowers of Fringed Loosestrife. The caterpillars of
the noctuid moth, Nola cilicoides (Blurry-Patched Nola), feed on Fringed
Loosestrife. This insect is also an oligolege. Little appears to be known about
this wildflower's relationships with birds and mammals.
Photographic
Location: A damp wooded area along a railroad in Urbana,
Illinois.
Comments: This is one of
the more common Lysimachia spp. (Loosestrife species). As a group, they
are not closely related to Lythrum spp. (Purple Loosestrife species).
Fringed Loosestrife can be distinguished from other Lysimachia spp. by
the conspicuous hairs on its petioles (see the lower photograph). It tends to
be more robust and have wider leaves than other species in this genus. All of
the Lysimachia spp. in Illinois have similar yellow flowers that produce
floral oil, although these flowers sometimes differ in
size.