By Adam Bigelow reporting for Native Plant News and adapted from Smoky Mountain News
For the past few years, whenever I encounter the Whorled Loosestrife growing along a trail or roadside I have been saying its name out loud, and slowly. Like a prayer: “World, lose strife.” Or so it sounds to my ears when said aloud. “World, lose strife.” And this world around us could use a lot less strife, that’s for sure.
In botanical terminology, a “whorl” is when three or more leaves emerge from the stem at the same location, called a node. This is in contrast to alternate leaf arrangement, where only one leaf grows per node and then the leaves alternate up and down the stem, or opposite leaf arrangement, which is when two leaves emerge from the stem at the same node. The Whorled Loosestrife usually has four leaves at every node, which is where it gets the “quadrifolia” part in its scientific name, Lysimachia quadrifolia. Quad means four, and folia means leaf.
Whorled Loosestrife grows in full sun and part shade under deciduous trees. While Whorled Loosestrife can be found growing across NC, it is more common in the mountains where it grows in a variety of dry forest and roadside conditions and habitats and thrives in sun and shade and along the edges. Near the coast you can find it growing in moist savannas, according to the Vascular Plants of NC.
And when it is happy, it can grow in relatively large patches in the woods. Lysimachia spreads by rhizome and by seed, and while it can form colonies, it shares the forest with many other wildflowers, shrubs, and trees in the mixed hardwood forests of Appalachia.
They make a great addition to your shade garden or planted along a path or trail or in a mixed bed of native wildflowers. They are a perennial plant that can grow up to three feet tall, returning each year from their rhizome roots. Whorled Loosestrife is a tough and adaptable plant in the garden and doesn’t tend to crowd out other plants. It can be striking when planted in a drift along a border.
The flowers are small and yellow, sometimes with reddish streaks along the petals and edges of the petals. Each of the five yellow petals is red at its base, which forms the overall shape of a star with a red ring in the center. The flower stalk emerges from the stem where the leaves attach, which is known as the axil. Each flower lays on top of a single leaf in the four-leaved whorl. It is as if the leaf is providing support for the flowers to bloom on, and possibly a landing pad for pollinating insects as well. It is very easy to grow from seed collected from the dry capsule. Make sure to gather seed just before the capsule opens. Sow seeds on top of the soil, lightly tamped down as they require light for germination.
Whorled Loosestrife and other members of the Lysimachia genus are pollinated by specialist bees called loosestrife bees (Macropis spp.) These native bees are solitary, non-boring bees. This means that they do not live in hives or large colonies, and they do not drill or dig into wood to make their nests. Instead, they dig their nests into the ground and raise their young there. As I consider myself to be solitary and non-boring, I have an affinity for this type of native bee. They need our help, more so than honeybees, which are not native and are raised as agricultural products. To help them, not only can you plant and encourage Whorled Loosestrife around your property, but you can also leave some bare soil areas in and around your gardens to attract native ground nesting bees.
Lysimachus, king of Macedonia did this
The genus name of Lysimachia comes from Lysimachus, who was king of Macedonia in ancient Greece. It is said that King Lysimachus hung a sprig of loosestrife between two oxen who were fighting each other while yoked and pulling a cart. The plant seems to have calmed the two beasts, causing them to lose their strife and hence giving the plant the common name of loosestrife, and the genus name of Lysimachia.
Perhaps that is what is needed in our modern world of strife and of two large metaphorical beasts fighting while yoked together as they are supposed to be moving us along our path. We could hang a clump of loosestrife at state and national halls of government, just in the center of the aisle. Or, better yet, perhaps we can plant loosestrife flowers at all of our public and municipal buildings and grounds. And maybe, just maybe, this world could lose a little strife.
Adapted with permission from “The Joyful Botanist” by Adam Bigelow, originally published as “Notes from a plant nerd: World, lose strife,” Smoky Mountain News June 21, 2023.
Adam Bigelow is a horticulturist and botanist who lives in Cullowhee, NC, and has been studying Plants and Wildflowers of Southern Appalachia for over 20 years. Adam is the owner of Bigelow’s Botanical Excursions, an ecotour business leading interpretive plant walks in western NC. Adam is a member of the planning committee for the Cullowhee Native Plant Conference, the largest and oldest Native Plant conference in the country and has attended the conference for many years. Adam lives in Cullowhee at 3,600 ft surrounded by native plants and wildflowers with his two cats, Hazel Alder and Silky Willow.