BWSR Featured Plants Name: Native Loosestrifes Lysimachia( ) Plant Family: Primrose (Primulaceae)

Home , Epeoloides, Lysimachia, Lysimachia ciliata, Lythrum, Lythrum salicaria, Macropis

2018 September Plant of the Month

BWSR Featured Plants Name: Native loosestrifes Lysimachia( ) Plant family: Primrose (Primulaceae)

Left: Fringed loosestrife (Lysimachia ciliate) typically blooms June through August. Photo Credit: Katy Chayka Center: Swamp loosestrife (Lysimachia thysiflora) typically blooms May through July.Photo Credit: Peter Dziuk Right: Prairie loosestrife (Lysimachia quadriflora) typically blooms July through August. Photo Credit: Katy Chayka

While they share the woodlands and wetlands. Identification common name “loosestrife,” The spreading growth habit Species in the genus a group of plants unrelated of this group makes them Lysimachia are rhizomatous, herbacious to the invasive purple ideal for stabilizing erosion- plants with ovate to loosestrife (Lythrum salicaria) prone areas. lance-shaped leaves can be useful in habitat Their yellow flowers provide in a predominately opposite arrangement restorations. Six indigenous an important pollen and along the stem. Bright species of Lysimachia plus oil resource for the rare to pale-yellow, five- three non-native garden Macropis oil bee. The petaled flowers rise on stalks from leaf axils. species thrive in Minnesota. Macropis bee is, in turn, host Some of the more There is a native loosestrife for the even more rare (and common species, such suitable for almost any wet declining) cleptoparasitic bee as Lysimachia ciliata, produce flowers that location — including prairies, Epeoloides pilosula. point face-down.

www.bwsr.state.mn.us 1 Importance to Bees Uses Of special note is Lysimachia species’ best known of these the parasitic bee rhizomatous growth species, but Minnesota Epeoloides pilosula, habit and preferences is home to at least which parasitizes the for wet areas make three others: Macropis nests of Macropis them excellent choices steironematis, Macropis bees by depositing for restorations in ciliata, and Macropis eggs in provisioned wet prairies, riparian patellata. While we lack nests. These eggs zones, shorelines and data on the distribution hatch, and then kill wetlands. The blooms and abundance of the Macropis larvae of Lysimachia ciliata Macropis species, it and consume the A Macropis nuda female visits a fringed loosestrife produce no nectar, but is generally agreed pollen provision. E. (Lysimachia ciliata) flower at the Eloise Butler are known to be the that their rarity and Wildflower Garden in Minneapolis.Photo Credit: pilosula was once Joel Gardner sole pollen host for bees highly specific floral widespread in the in the genus Macropis association makes them eastern U.S., but has increasing rarity of best strategies for (oil bees). Oil bees use a group of conservation only been detected its Macropis host, conserving these the pollen and floral oils concern. Other pollen- a handful of times and is likely on the bees, Lysimachia to construct nests and foraging bees known in the past 50 years. verge of extinction. will remain an as an additive to the to visit Lysimachia It is endangered While more important resource pollen provisions they species include small in Conneticut, research is needed in this increasingly provide to larvae. metalic sweat bees likely due to the to understand the threatened system. Macropis nuda is the (Lasioglossum).

Habitat All Lysimachia species prefer Lysimachia ciliata is the Fringed loosestrife prairies, wetlands, calcareous moist conditions. Their most widely distributed (Lysimachia cilata), which fens, and marsh margins. It sunlight preference ranges in the state. It also can be blooms June through prefers calcium-rich soil. from shade to open fields. seen in Twin Cities-area August, prefers wet shady Tufted loosestrife, AKA Bloom time also varies by gardens. Prairie loosestrife, areas along streams, in wet swamp or water loosestrife species, but generally tends Lysimachia quadriflora, and meadows and in wet woods. (Lysimachia thyrsiflora), to be early to mid-summer. tufted loosestrife, Lysimachia Prairie loosestrife, AKA four- Of the three most commonly thrysiflora, are broadly flower loosestrife (Lysimachia blooms May through July, available species through distributed in the state, but quadriflora), blooms July growing in most wetland Minnesota native seed more difficult to find from through August in open types, including bogs, fens, providers, fringed loosestrife, seed companies or nurseries. moist areas such as low marshes and swamps.

Resources and References Cane, J. H., G. C. Eickwort, F. R. Wesley, and J. Spielholz. 1983. Foraging , Grooming and Mate-seeking Behaviors of Macropis nuda ( Hymenoptera , Melittidae ) and Use of Lysimachia ciliata (Primulaceae) Oils in Larval Provisions and Cell Linings. American Midland Naturalist 110:257–264.

Chadde, S. W. 2013. Minnesota Flora. CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform.

Chayka, K., and P. M. Dziuk. (n.d.). Minnesota Wildflowers. https://www.minnesotawildflowers.info/search?scientific_name=Lysimachia&wh

Ascher, J. S. 2005. Species Profile: Epeoloides pilosula. In Shepherd, M. D., D. M. Vaughan, and S. H. Black (Eds). Red List of Pollinator Insects of North America. Portland, OR: The Xerces Society for Invertebrate Conservation.

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