LUDWIGIA PALUSTRIS

Family and Genus:- See- ONAGRACEAE

Common Names:- Hampshire purslane

Homotypic Synonyms:- Dantia palustris, Isnardia palustris, Ludwigia palustris

var. typica, Quadricosta palustris.

Meaning:- Ludwigia (L) For Christian Gottlieb Ludwig (1709-73) German botany

professor at Leipzig.

Palustris (L) Of swampy ground.

General description:- Semi-aquatic, glabrous, perennial herb.

Stems:-

1) 10-30 cm, glabrous, creeping and rooting at the lower nodes, then ascending to

erect.

Leaves:-

1) 7-45 mm, short-petiolate; opposite. blade, narrowly obovate.

Flowers:-

1) 1(-2) subsessile in the leaf axils, inconspicuous, epigynous, narrowly

campanulate.

2) Sepals, 4, 1·5 x 2 mm. triangular-ovate ± persistent.

3) Petals, absent.

4) Stamens, 4;

a) filaments 0·5-0·6 mm.

Fruit:-

1) Capsule, shortly cylindrical, 2-5 x 2-3 mm, glabrous, dehiscing by 4 valves.

2) Seeds, 0·6-0·9 x 0·3 mm, free from endocarp.

Key features:-

1) Leaves, opposite.

2) Petals, absent.

3) Stamens, 4.

Click here for a glossary of terms used.

Habitat:- Marshy places by lakes and streams, often seasonally flooded areas in

river deltas. 0-200 m.

Distribution:- Scattered records from W Greece. - Widespread in temperate areas

of both hemispheres. Very rare on Crete currently know from only one location near

Rethymo in the NW

Flowering time:- Mostly July-Sept.

Photos by:- Courtesy of Wiki-Commons