LYTHRACEAE LOOSESTRIFE FAMILY 
SWAMP LOOSESTRIFE. WATER WILLOW 
Decodon verticillatus (L.) Ell. 
The Loosestrife family is relatively small and unimpor- 
tant. Its members are widely distributed but are most 
abundant in the American tropics. The flowers are di- 
morphous or trimorphous, and 
the calyx tube bears the sta- 
mens and petals at its throat. 
The Swamp Loosestrife is not 
uncommon in swamps and _ along 
the borders of ponds and streams 
from Maine to Minnesota, south to 
Florida and Louisiana. The 4-6 
sided stems of this perennial grow 
2-8 feet high and are curved over at 
the top. Often the submerged parts 
have a spongy thickened bark and 
are somewhat woody at the base. 
The willowlike leaves are sometimes 
opposite and sometimes whorled. 
Pink-purple trimorphic flowers 
are found in the axils of the upper 
leaves. The short calyx has 5 
erect teeth and as many longer 
hornlike processes between the 
teeth. The corolla consists of 5 
wedge-shaped petals. There are 10 stamens inserted on the 
calyx tube, 5 short and 5 long and exserted. The fruit is a 
globose, 3-5-celled capsule which is included in the calyx and 
dehiscent along the dorsal suture. 
The Long-leaved Ammannia, Ammannia coccinea Rottb., is a 
smooth branching herb 6-18 inches high, common on muddy banks 
throughout Illinois. In such places and on wet sandy shores it may 
be found from New Jersey to Florida and from Ohio to the Dakotas 
and southwestward. The linear-lanceolate leaves, 1-3 inches long, 
are paired and with somewhat clasping bases. The small scarlet 
flowers are 1-5, sessile in the axils of the leaves. The 4 petals, with 
the 4-8 more or less exserted stamens, are attached directly to the 
top of the 4-parted calyx tube. The styles are long and slender. 
The capsule fruit bursts irregularly, scattering many fine seeds. 
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