Lysimachia nummularia

Copyright: Flora of North America Association

Stems prostrate or trailing (rooting at nodes and often forming mats), simple or branching proximally, 1–5 dm, glabrous or sparsely stipitate-glandular; rhizomes slender to somewhat thickened; bulblets absent. Leaves opposite; petiole 0.1–0.5 cm, eciliate; blade orbiculate to ovate-orbiculate, 1–3.5 × 0.5–3.5 cm, base rounded, decurrent, margins entire, plane, eciliolate, apex rounded, surfaces reddish-brown punctate, glabrous; venation pinnate-arcuate. Inflorescences axillary in medial leaves, solitary flowers. Pedicels 1–8 cm, glabrous. Flowers: sepals 5, calyx streaked with dark resin canals, 5–8 mm, glabrous, lobes ovate to deltate, margins thin; petals 5, corolla yellow, finely streaked with black resin canals, campanulate to rotate, 10–15 mm, lobes with margins somewhat irregularly erose apically, apex rounded to acute, finely stipitate-glandular (sometimes sparsely so); filaments connate ca. 1 mm, shorter than corolla; staminodes absent. Capsules not seen. 2n = 30, 32, 43 (Europe).

Phenology: Flowering summer.
Habitat: Wet meadows, seeps, pond edges, stream banks, flood plains, wet roadside ditches, mesic woods
Elevation: 0-1700 m

Introduced; B.C., N.B., N.S., Ont., P.E.I., Que., Ala., Ark., Calif., Colo., Conn., Del., D.C., Ga., Ill., Ind., Iowa, Kans., Ky., La., Maine, Md., Mass., Mich., Minn., Miss., Mo., Nebr., N.H., N.J., N.Y., N.C., Ohio, Oreg., Pa., R.I., S.C., Tenn., Vt., Va., Wash., W.Va., Wis., Eurasia

Discussion

Lysimachia nummularia has been collected as an adventive in Newfoundland.

Lysimachia nummularia is part of a Eurasian complex of 38 species centered on the Indian subcontinent, whose boundaries are not well understood. North American populations of this species rarely, if ever, produce capsules. Plants of eastern Asia are reported to produce fruit; seed viability is unknown. The species reproduces by vegetative means, often forming extensive mats.

Selected References

None.

Lower Taxa