Whorled Loosestrife

The little plant above is called Whorled Loosestrife (scientific name Lysimachia quadrifolia). It's in bloom now at Sheep Pasture and throughout Easton. It's called whorled because the leaves are attached to the stem in a circular pattern. It shares the loosestrife name with the more well-known Purple Loosestrife (Lythrum salicaria). Both the common name and the Greek lysimachia mean release from strife. Lysimachus was a Greek king in ancient Sicily who supposedly used a member of this genus to pacify a maddened bull. According to one website colonists fed this plant to oxen so they would work together peacefully although with oxen one wonders how much that was necessary. The Iroquois used the roots of Whorled Loosestrife as an emetic.

One would think from the common names that the two plants are closely related, but the scientific name exposes the truth. Just as a refresher the scientific system of nomenclature was developed by Carl von Linné, an 18th century Swedish scientist. Remember Kingdom, Phylum, Class, Order, Family, Genus, Species? Relationships between organisms get closer and closer as you move left to right in the previous sentence until members of the same species can produce viable offspring with each other. As it turns out things are not quite that simple, but, for our purposes, the system works pretty well.

Purple loosestrife is a beautiful, but dangerous invasive species that likes moist areas. It's often found on the banks of streams and ponds. Chet Raymo has written about it's varied and interesting reproductive strategies, but suffice it to say that it produces zillions of seeds that are long lived on the ground as well as mats of roots that regenerate if disturbed. Seeds of Purple Loosestrife came over in the ballast of European ships, and the plant has moved inland over the last two centuries. Since it crowds out native wetland species there have been numerous efforts to control it all of which have failed. At Sheep Pasture we've had some success stopping its spread by cutting it to the ground when it is in full flower. The theory is that the roots are putting out so much energy at that point that they might not be able to regenerate fast enough to beat out native plants.

Widespread testing of a European beetle that eats loosestrife is being done. One fear is that after the Purple Loosestrife is reduced, the beetles will turn to eating something else. Back to our Whorled Loosestrife which is a native of the eastern United States. It prefers uplands rather than streamside, but I've heard folks express concern that the European beetles might target this species as well as Purple Loosestrife. Here the scientific system of nomenclature tells us its unlikely to happen since the plants have different genus, family, order, and class. We're not home free, however, because there is at least one European moth caterpillar that feeds on both Lysimachia and Lythrum.

At any rate, see the Whorled Yellow Loosestrife now and watch for the Purple stuff in a few weeks.