7. Lysimachia terrestris (L.) Britton, Sterns & Poggenb. (swamp candles, bulbil loosestrife)

Map 2327

Plants with short to elongate, relatively stout, fleshy rhizomes. Stems 30–100 cm long, relatively relatively stout (2–5 mm in diameter at the base), erect or strongly ascending, not rooting at the nodes, unbranched or few-branched toward the tip, developing small, narrowly ellipsoid bulbils in the main leaf axils toward the end of the growing season, glabrous, but with scattered, glandular dots and lines. Lower stem leaves reduced to small scales, these sessile, ovate, grading into the main leaves in the lower 1/3 of the stem. Main stem leaves opposite, sessile or nearly so. Leaf blades (above the basal 1/3 of the stem) 3–10 cm long, 0.7–1.5(–2.0) cm wide, narrowly lanceolate to narrowly oblanceolate, long-tapered at the base, angled or somewhat tapered to a bluntly or sharply pointed tip, the margins entire, often minutely curled-under, the surfaces with orangish red to reddish purple gland-dots or punctations, otherwise glabrous, the upper surface green to dark green, the undersurface lighter green, usually slightly glaucous; secondary veins usually evident but often faint. Inflorescences terminal and usually solitary, of racemes with numerous flowers, the flower stalks 0.3–0.8 cm long (elongating to 0.8–1.5 mm as the fruits mature), glabrous, but gland-dotted. Calyces 5(–7)-lobed, the lobes 3–4 mm long, narrowly lanceolate-triangular to lanceolate, gland-dotted, usually with 3 relatively faint veins. Corollas 5(–7)-lobed, the lobes 5–7 mm long, narrowly oblong-elliptic, angled to a bluntly pointed tip, the margins entire or slightly uneven, yellow, glabrous and occasionally with reddish or orangish markings on the upper surface toward the base, however both surfaces with reddish purple to nearly black lines. Stamens slightly shorter than the corollas, the filaments 3–6 mm long, fused into a short basal tube, this glandular-hairy. Staminodes absent. Styles 4–5 mm long. Fruits 2.0–2.5 mm long, globose, the surface gland-dotted. Seeds few, 1.0–1.2 mm long, irregularly elliptic, oblong, or rhombic in outline, triangular in cross-section, sometimes oblong-elliptic and rounded, black, with patches of lighter glaucous covering, shiny. 2n=84. May–June.

Uncommon, known thus far from a single specimen from Adair County (eastern [mostly northeastern] U.S. west to Minnesota, Missouri, and Oklahoma, also Idaho, Oregon, and Washington; Canada). Acid seeps, on sandy substrate.

Steyermark (1963) included this species on a list of plants occurring in Illinois that he predicted would be discovered in Missouri in the future. It was added to the state’s flora by T. E. Smith and Gremaud (2006), who documented a small population growing in an open seepage community on a bench of the Chariton River.