Author

Jonathan Schultis

Ecology

Wet ditches, wet clearings, sand and gravel bars of streams, marshes, and marshy shores.

Family

Onagraceae

Flowers

Epigynous; sepals 5-7, mostly green, 5-8 mm long, lanceolate, acuminate distally; petals 5-7, bright yellow, 5-10 mm long, obovate; stamens 2x the number of sepals; stigma capitate.

Fruit

Capsules narrowly cylindric, 3-5 cm long, 10-14 ribs, hairy, splitting irregularly into longitudinal segments; seeds numerous, 1 row per locule, about 1 mm long, obovate, brownish with a horseshoe-like segment of endocarp that readily separates from the seed.

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Inflorescences

Flowers numerous, solitary in the axils of bracts. Flower stalks 1-15 mm long, and similar to the floral tube

Leaves

Leaves alternate, lanceolate to oblanceolate, subsessile, or gradually narrowed basally into petioles to 2 cm long, apices acute, larger blades to 15 cm long and 3 cm broad; upper surfaces sparsely pubescent, lower usually pubescent mainly along the midrib, both surfaces finely papillose.

References

Godfrey, R. K. and J. W. Wooten. 1981. Aquatic and Wetland Plants of SouteasternUnited States – Dicotyledons. University of Georgia Press, Athens.

IPNI. 2006. The International Plant Names Index. http://www.ipni.org/index.html

[accessed 30 November 2006].

USDA, NRCS. 2006. The PLANTS Database (http://plants.usda.gov, 1 December 2006). National Plant Data Center, Baton Rouge, LA 70874-4490 USA

Stems

Stems from 1-20 dm tall, base of the plant unbranched to profusely branched distally, shaggy-pubescent with long hairs, the lower portions of large individuals often becomming glabrous.

Synonyms

Jussiaea leptocarpa Nutt.

Ludwigia leptocarpa (Nutt.) Hara var. meyeriana (Kuntze) Alain

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The mounted scan of a Ludwigia leptocarpa.	The surface of the stem.
The apex of the leaf.	The petiole from the abaxial view of the leaf base.
The cross-section of the stem	A gland at the base of the ovary.
An even closer look at the gland at the base of the ovary.	Rows of seeds in capsule
Seeds surrounded by endocarp	Pedicels.
The capsular fruit	The tip of the fruit
Stamen and petal scars	A closer view of the petal and stamen scars
Young stem with flower buds	Epigynous structure of the flower.
An abaxial view of the sepals.	Flower, lateral view
Top view of flower	Closer frontal view of the flower
A view of the stamens and stigma.	Top view of the anthers and stigma.
A side view of the stamens.	A close look at the anthers.
An extremely close look at a stamen showing an anther and filament.