7. LYSIMÁCHIA, Tourn. Loosestrife.
Calyx 5–6 parted. Corolla rotate, the divisions entire, convolute in bud. Filaments commonly monadelphous at base; anthers oblong or oval; staminodia none. Capsule few–several-seeded.—Leafy-stemmed perennials, with herbage commonly glandular-dotted. (In honor of King Lysimachus, or from λύσις, a release from, and μάχη, strife.)
§ 1. LYSIMACHIA proper. Corolla yellow, rotate, and very deeply parted, and with no teeth between the lobes; stamens more or less monadelphous, often unequal; leaves opposite or whorled, or some abnormally alternate.
[*] Flowers (middle-sized) in a terminal leafy panicle; corolla without marks.
L. vulgáris, L., a coarse and tall European species, pubescent and branching, with ovate-lanceolate distinctly petioled leaves, and glandular filaments united to near the middle.—Naturalized in a few places in E. Mass.
[*][*] Flowers (small) in a virgate terminal raceme or in the upper axils; corolla dark-dotted or streaked; filaments conspicuously monadelphous, unequal.
1. L. quadrifòlia, L. Somewhat hairy; stem simple (1–2° high); leaves whorled in fours or fives (sometimes in twos, threes, or sixes, rarely only opposite or partly alternate), ovate-lanceolate; flowers on long capillary peduncles from the axils of the leaves; lobes of the corolla ovate-oblong.—Moist or sandy soil, N. Brunswick to Minn., and Ga. June.
2. L. strícta, Ait. Stems 1–2° high, often bearing oblong or moniliform bulblets in the axils; smooth, at length branched, very leafy; leaves opposite or rarely alternate, lanceolate, acute at each end; flowers on slender pedicels in a long raceme (5–12´), leafy at base; lobes of the corolla lance-oblong.—Low grounds, Newf. to Minn., Ark., and N. Ga. June–Aug.
[*][*][*] Flowers (rather large) solitary in the axils of ordinary leaves; corolla not dark-dotted nor streaked; filaments slightly monadelphous.
L. nummulària, L. (Moneywort.) Smooth; stems trailing and creeping; leaves roundish, small, short-petioled; peduncles axillary, 1-flowered; divisions of the corolla broadly ovate, obtuse, longer than the lance-ovate calyx-lobes and stamens.—Escaped from gardens into damp ground in some places. July–Sept. (Nat. from Eu.)