Purple Loosestrife The scene is breathtakingly beautiful, a thick brush of purple flowers blankets Canada's wetlands. This blanket silences the expected sounds of the wetland environment, birds chirping, ducks splashing, insects buzzing and animals thriving. This unnatural silence is disturbing, the favourite flowers that used to litter this landscape are no longer visible, the water that used to ripple continuously is perfectly still. The wetland is dead, except for this overpowering, hardy purple
com/invaders/plants-terrestrial/purple-loosestrife/ “Alien Invasive Aquatic and Wetland Plants: Purple Loosestrife” http://purpleloosestrife.org/uploads/fs_purpleloosestrifeplel.pdf “Purple Loosestrife Project Manitoba” http://purpleloosestrife.org/ “Purple Loosestrife (Lythrum salicaria) ” http://www.mnr.gov.on.ca/stdprodconsume/groups/lr/@mnr/@biodiversity/documents/document/stdprod_104404.pdf “Purple Loosestrife” http://www.lakeheadca.com/lsstrife.htm
Description Lythrum salicaria is a part of the family of Lythraceae, known as the Henna family. The genus Lythrum is comprised of 38 species of annuals, perennials, and subshrubs. The name Lythrum comes from the greek lythron, meaning blood. This is most likely referring to the reddish-purple colour of the flowers (Hyam and Pankhurst, 1995.) The species name salicaria alludes to the long narrow leaf shape, which resembles the leaves of the Willow (Salix spp.) (Jacobs, 2008). Although Lythrum salicaria is
The Purple Loosestrife is an invasive species that continues to reproduce and slowly being treated. The invasive species of the Purple Loosestrife, or Lythrum Salicaria, is a wetland plant that can produce up to 2.7 million seeds with each plant blooming about 30 flowering stems from early July until early September. From their long flower spikes, they have five to seven pink purple petals with a purple rose flower. This invasive species can grow from anywhere between four feet to ten feet tall