LYTHRUM JUNCEUM

Family and Genus:- See- LYTHRACEAE

Common Names:- Creeping loosestrife

Homotypic Synonyms:- None

Meaning:- Lythrum (Gr) Gore, A name used by the Greek physician and botanist

Dioscorides, may refer to the flower colour.

Junceum (L) Like a small rush.

General description:- Glabrous, usually perennial.

Stems:-

1) 20-70 cm. usually branched from the base with decumbent, divaricate, straggling

branches.

Leaves:-

1) 8-22 x 2-11 mm, broadly elliptic-oblong to linear-oblong, mostly alternate.

Flower:-

1) Trimorphic, solitary in the leaf-axils, suberect.

2) Hypanthium, 5-6 mm, shorter than the subtending leaf, cylindrical-obconical,

tapered gradually to the base, spotted with red near the base.

3) Sepals, broadly deltate, scarious. epicalyx-segments c. 1 mm, triangular-

subulate, equalling or somewhat exceeding the sepals.

4) Petals, 5-6 mm, purple, sometimes white or cream at the base.

5) Stamens, 12, some or all exserted.

Fruit:-

1) Capsule, much shorter than the hypanthium.

Key features:-

1) Fruiting hypanthium obconical, tapered gradually to a narrow base; red-spotted

near the base, usually shorter than subtending leaf.

Click here for a glossary of terms used.

Habitat:- Coastal wetland, damp meadows, seasonally wet spots in agricultural

areas and by roads. 0-700(-1100) m.

Distribution:- Widespread in Greece, common in the west, but lacking in the

interior north. - SW Europe, Mediterranean area, S Anatolia and Cyprus. Fairly

Widespread on Crete.

Flowering time:- Mid-Apr to July, occasionally later.

Photos by:- Steve Lenton