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Purple Loosestrife

Scientific Name: Lythrum salicaria L
Origin: Europe/Asia

Background & Description
Purple loosestrife (Lythrum salicaria L.) is an erect, herbaceous perennial of Eurasian origin that became established in the estuaries of northeastern North America by the early 1800's. By the late 1800's it had spread throughout the northeastern United States and southeastern Canada, reaching as far north and west as Manitoba. L. salicaria caused few problems until the 1930's when it became aggressive in the floodplain pastures of the St. Lawrence River. Since then, it has steadily expanded its local distribution and now poses a serious threat to native emergent vegetation in shallowwater marshes throughout the northeastern and northcentral regions. Recent records indicate that purple loosestrife is also tolerant of soils and climates beyond these regions and threatens to become a serious problem in wetlands and irrigation systems in the Great Plains and the Far West.

It is no small irony that after 50 years of struggle to find some means of breaking up monotypic stands of cattails (Typha spp.) to increase wildlife diversity and abundance, wetland managers must now cope with a foreign species that replaces cattail, but unfortunately creates another monospecific community of greatly diminished wildlife value.