Wanted: Dead
Wildlife Loses as Purple Loosestrife Makes Gains
Purple Loosestrife
(Lythrum Salicaria)
| Description : |
Alias: |
Spiked Willow-herb, long-purples, Purple Lythracum. |
| |
Stems: |
Up to 4 feet tall, 4 sided (squarish) and branched |
| |
Leaves: |
Opposite, 1 to 4 inches long, whorled, lance-shaped, usually
rough and hairy. In fall, leaves dry and turn bright orange. |
| |
Flowers: |
1 inch across with 6 crumpled purple petals on crowded,
interrupted, elongated, terminal spikes. Flowers between July
and September. |
| |
Fruits: |
Seeds form from bottom up as flowers wilt upward. |
Once it becomes established purple loosestrife frequently becomes the dominant
vegetation by out competing native plants, reducing the size and diversity of natural
plant communities and threatening scarce species.
Purple loosestrife has NO NATURAL ENEMIES!
Origin and Distribution
Purple loosestrife was introduced to North America from Europe and Asia during the early
1800s as a contaminant of European ship ballasts and as a valued medicinal herb for the
treatment of diarrhea, dysentery, bleeding, wounds, ulcers, and sores. For nearly a
century it occurred as a pioneer species on the northeastern seaboard. The range then
expanded further
inland in the 1880s as the construction of inland canals and waterways increased. The
continued expansion proceeded with the development and use of road systems, with
commercial distribution of the plant for horticultural purposes, and with regional
propagation of seed for bee forage. Purple loosestrife reached the upper Midwest by the
1930s. The plant now occurs in scattered locations across most of the U.S. with the
heaviest concentrations in the glaciated wetlands of the northeast.
Wildlife species decline as native plants are
reduced
- Bulrushes, sedges, water plants and all other grass species are crowded out.
- Roots of cattail families can no longer provide nourishment to beavers and muskrats.
- Leaves that provide camouflage for ducks, geese,red-wing blackbirds and the marsh wren
are no longer available.
- Nesting materials for hummingbirds and other nest builders are harder to find.
- Duck and bird nesting habitats are lost due to heavy stalk.
- Waterfowl, reptiles, amphibians and fur bearers are displaced when a Purple Loosestrife
community takes over ....
What Can You do?
Check your yard and gardens. Unknowingly, many of us have purchased
loosestrife plants to plant at home. Seeds from your plants have escaped to a wetland
nearby. Please replace it.
What about Purple Loosestrife down by the river,
or in the wetland near your home?
Pull or dig it up. First year plants
are easy to pull. It can be difficult to pull established plants, owing to the extensive
root mat. Plants will resprout unless the entire root is removed
by digging.
Time your attack before it flowers or just as it
starts flowering from the bottom up. Later than this allows the plant to make seeds which
spread quickly. If you need to see the flowers before digging, do so but burn or bag your
Loosestrife for disposal. Do NOT compost it.
Further Information
Purple Loosestrife
InfoCentre
Alien Profile: Purple Loosestrife
Purple Loosestrife Management
Biological
control
BACK
Parts of this article were reproduced with permission of
Lyn Lombard of the Piscataquog Watershed Association. |