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Re: Loosestrife, Chi-Bot

I was interested in your comments about the Chicago Botanic Garden. I live on the south side of Chicago and visit the Garden from time to time and was wondering where you had seen purple loosestrife and who specifically it was who had a negative attitude about growing and/or eradicating it.

I know that the CBG has a restored prairie, that it is doing extensive research on protecting a native woodland on its property, that it publishes a list of invasive plants that it encourages gardeners not to plant, and most recently it completed a 14-acre wetland/island garden with the shoreline designed by the Conservation Design Forum here in Chicagoland. The landscape architecture firm for this project was  Oehme/Van Sweden. The CBG is constructed on a series of islands.

Carolyn Ulrich

Lynn Jenkins wrote:

http://www.inhs.uiuc.edu/cee/loosestrife/faq.html
Perhaps there is someone on his list connected to Chicago Botanic Gardens that will begin the education problem.  Their attitude is truly shocking!
In my experience the Lysimachias tend to spread aggressively by roots, but it's the seed of the Lythrum (Lythrum salicaria, as Andrew mentioned) that is so dangerous. That's why many gardeners deny the problem...they either use seed-germination controls, mulch, or weed the seedlings. They see little spread in their own gardens and don't believe there really is a problem.  But birds will disperse the seeds and once it's in the waterways, all control is lost and they explode.
Visit the above site to find out more.
In an interesting program, Purdue is working with citizen groups including 4-Hers in areas where Lythrum is a serious threat to release and monitor a beetle that will hopefully get the plant under control (and be in control itself!).
It's nice to see research that is non-chemically oriented!
Lynn
Nature's Garden
 

At 09:00 AM 1/5/2003, you wrote:

Sounds to me as though the "varieties" Sharon mentions are all Lysimachia, also called loosestrife but belonging to the Primulaceae family, not Lythraceae.

There are some native varieties (Lysimachia ciliata and L. fraseri which are green with yellow flowers) while others are from China, Japan (L. clethroides, gooseneck loosestrife) and Europe (L. punctata). The purple-foliaged forms (L. ciliata 'Purpurea',  L. c. 'Firecracker') and variegated one (L. p. 'Alexander') are as vigorous as the plain green ones and, while they won't threaten wetlands, they sure can take over a border in a hurry. I have routed all mine out.  I tried growing them in containers and they were fine for a season but ultimately sulked at the restriction.

BTW, when I was at the Chicago Botanic Garden in 2000, they were selling pots of purple loosestrife even as it was encroaching on the ditches, roadside and ponds.

Karen
Mississauga, Ontario

Karen York is a botanical editor and author of The Holistic Garden: Creating Spaces for Health and Healing (Prentice Hall, 2001; Penguin/Putnam, 2002).

on 1/5/03 6:37 AM, Hamptongar@aol.com at Hamptongar@aol.com wrote:

Sharon:

 
I think the only Lythrum we're talking about is Lythrum salicaria.  There's an excellent site at http://plants.usda.gov/cgi_bin/plant_profile.cgi?symbol=LYSA2 where you can get much more information on the plant, it's synonyms, distribution and where it's been banned from production and sale in the U.S.
    I'm most interested in the varieties you mentioned in your posting though.  If you get the time could you note some of the species or varietal names?
 

 

 
 
 
 
 

Andrew Messinger
The Hampton Gardener
The Hampton Gardener is a Registered Trade Mark
(Published every Thursday in the Southampton Press)

Karen York is a botanical editor and author of The Holistic Garden: Creating Spaces for Health and Healing (Prentice Hall, 2001).

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