Ludwigia leptocarpa |
Ludwigia erecta |
|
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anglestem primrose-willow, anglestem waterprimrose |
yerba de jicotea |
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Habit | Herbs, perennial or (robust) annual, or shrubs, often with woody base, when aquatic, forming white pneumatophores from nodes. | Herbs annual, rarely persistent a second year from woody base. |
Stems | usually erect or strongly ascending, rarely floating or creeping, terete to somewhat angled on young branches, 30–250 cm, well branched to sparsely branched or simple, usually villous, often also strigillose, rarely glabrous, with raised lines decurrent from leaf axils. |
erect, 4-angled, rarely 4-winged, sometimes basally terete, 40–280 cm, simple to densely branched, branches often ascending, glabrous. |
Leaves | stipules narrowly deltate, 0.1–0.2 × 0.1–0.2 mm; petiole 0.2–3.5 cm; blade broadly lanceolate, 3.5–18 × 1–4 cm, base narrowly cuneate, margins subentire, apex acuminate, surfaces hirsute or villous; bracts slightly to much reduced. |
stipules deltate, 0.2–0.3 × 0.15–0.2 mm; petiole 0.2–2.2 cm, somewhat flattened and continuous with ridges or wings on stem; blade elliptic to narrowly lanceolate, 2–20 × 0.2–4 cm, base cuneate, margins minutely scabrid, apex acute or acuminate, membranous, surfaces glabrous or sometimes minutely strigillose along abaxial veins; bracts often reduced. |
Inflorescences | leafy racemes, flowers solitary in axils; bracteoles often absent, when present, narrowly deltate, 2–3 × 1.2–2.4 mm, attached near ovary base. |
leafy spikes, flowers solitary in distal axils; bracteoles attached at base of ovary or on lower 1/2, without subtending glands, deltate, 0.3–0.5 × 0.2–0.3 mm, apex acute. |
Flowers | sepals ovate-deltate, 5.5–11 × 1.5–3 mm, margins entire, apex acuminate, surfaces villous; petals orange-yellow, obovate, 5–11 × 4–8 mm; stamens (8 or)10 or 12(or 14), in 2 unequal series, longer filaments 2.5–4.5 mm, shorter ones 1.5–2.5 mm, anthers oblong, 1.2–1.6 × 0.7–1 mm, extrorse; ovary cylindric, subterete, 10–16 × 2–3 mm, glabrate to strigillose or villous; nectary disc slightly elevated at ovary apex, 2–4 mm diam., lobed, depressed, surrounded by densely matted white hairs; style 3–4.5 mm, glabrous, stigma capitate-globose, 1–1.5 × 2–2.5 mm, ± exserted beyond anthers. |
sepals ovate or lanceolate, 3–6 × 1–2 mm, apex acute or short-acuminate, surfaces usually glabrous, sometimes strigillose; petals obovate, 3.5–5 × 2–2.5 mm; stamens 8 in 2 subequal series, filaments 1.3–1.5 mm, anthers oblong, 0.6–1 × 0.4–0.5 mm; ovary obconic, 4-angled, 4–10 × 2–4 mm, usually glabrous, rarely strigillose; nectary disc plane on ovary apex, 3–4 mm diam., 4-lobed, glabrate; style 0.5–1.5 × 0.5–0.6 mm, stigma globose, 0.8–1 × 1–1.2 mm, not exserted beyond anthers and pollen shed directly on it. |
Capsules | obscurely [4 or]5 or 6[or 7]-angled or subterete, straight or curved, 15–50 × 2.5–4 mm, relatively thin-walled, seeds visible as bumps, tardily and irregularly loculicidal, villous, pedicel 2–20 mm. |
oblong-linear to squarish-cylindric, 4-angled, 10–22 × 2–4 mm, thin-walled, irregularly dehiscent, subsessile. |
Seeds | in 1 row per locule, horizontal and loosely embedded in an easily detached horseshoe-shaped segment of firm endocarp, pale brown, obovoid, 1–1.2 mm, shiny, finely pitted, raphe much narrower than seed body. |
elongate-ovoid, 0.3–0.5 × 0.2–0.3 mm, raphevery reduced and inconspicuous. |
2n | = 32, 48. |
= 16. |
Ludwigia leptocarpa |
Ludwigia erecta |
|
Phenology | Flowering summer. | Flowering summer–early fall. |
Habitat | Wet places, mainly along coastal areas, especially ditches, banks near brackish water. | Pond margins and depressions, wet sand ditches and prairies. |
Elevation | 0–200[–1300] m. (0–700[–4300] ft.) | 0–100[–300] m. (0–300[–1000] ft.) |
Distribution |
AL; AR; DE; FL; GA; IL; IN; KY; LA; MD; MO; MS; NC; OH; OK; PA; SC; TN; TX; VA; WV; Central America; South America; Mexico (Campeche, Chiapas, Jalisco, Nayarit, Oaxaca, San Luis Potosí, Tabasco, Tamaulipas, Veracruz); West Indies (Cuba, Hispaniola, Jamaica, Puerto Rico); Africa; Indian Ocean Islands (Madagascar)
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AL; AZ; FL; Central America; South America; Mexico (Campeche, Chiapas, Jalisco, Michoacán, Nayarit, Oaxaca, Tabasco); West Indies; Africa (Nigeria, Tanzania); Indian Ocean Islands (Comoros Islands, Madagascar, Seychelles) |
Discussion | Ludwigia leptocarpa is a globally widespread and morphologically variable species; in the flora area it is distributed widely in wet areas of the southeastern United States. Both tetraploid and hexaploid plants are known, but it is not clear if or how ploidy level is related to the considerable morphological variation, especially in pubescence type and pattern. (Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.) |
Ludwigia erecta, which is morphologically similar to L. decurrens and often growing with it, is modally self-pollinating and is usually easy to distinguish from that species. Although Ludwigia erecta is widely distributed in warm temperate regions in the New World and Africa, it appears to be most closely related to species restricted to South America. Its appearance in a rather remote locality in Arizona in 2006 may be attributable to transport there in mud on migrating birds. (Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.) |
Source | FNA vol. 10. | FNA vol. 10. |
Parent taxa | Onagraceae > subfam. Ludwigioideae > Ludwigia > sect. Seminudae | Onagraceae > subfam. Ludwigioideae > Ludwigia > sect. Pterocaulon |
Sibling taxa | ||
Synonyms | Jussiaea leptocarpa, J. biacuminata, J. foliosa, J. leptocarpa subsp. angustissima, J. leptocarpa var. angustissima, J. leptocarpa var. meyeriana, J. pilosa, J. pilosa var. robustior, J. schottii, J. surinamensis, J. variabilis, J. variabilis var. meyeriana, J. variabilis var. pilosa, L. leptocarpa var. angustissima, L. leptocarpa var. meyeriana | Jussiaea erecta, Isnardia discolor, J. acuminata, J. acuminata var. latifolia, J. acuminata var. longifolia, J. altissima, J. declinata, J. erecta var. plumeriana, J. erecta var. sebana, J. onagra, J. plumeriana, J. ramosa, L. acuminata |
Name authority | (Nuttall) H. Hara: J. Jap. Bot. 28: 292. (1953) | (Linnaeus) H. Hara: J. Jap. Bot. 28: 292. (1953) |
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