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Plant Profile

Roughleaf Loosestrife (Lysimachia asperulifolia)

This shot shows several rough-leaved loosestrife plants in full bloom with yellow flowers. Photo Credit: Rob Gardner

Global Rank: G3 - Vulnerable
Legal Status: Federally Endangered
Family: Primulaceae
State: NC, SC
Nature Serve ID: 129563
Lifeform: Forb/herb
Date Inducted in National Collection: 04/01/1990

Description:

Rough-leaved loosestrife is a perennial herb endemic to the coastal plain and sandhills of North Carolina and South Carolina. It grows to about 24 inches tall, has whorled leaves in 3s and 4s, and displays 5-petaled yellow flowers from late May to early June (USFWS 1995). Jean Louis Poiret first discovered L. asperulifolia in 1814. Rough-leaved loosestrife occurs mostly in ecotones between longleaf pine uplands and pond pine pocosins. It is associated with six different community types; low pocosin, high pocosin, sandhill seep, wet pine flatwoods, pine savanna, and streamhead pocosin (USFWS 1995). It is a federally endangered species with only 64 populations left, all but one in being in the Coastal Plain of North Carolina. Rough-leaved loosestrife is a misnomer since it has smooth leaves. Its leaves are actually named for their resemblance to Asperula ororata of Europe.

Where is Roughleaf Loosestrife (Lysimachia asperulifolia) located in the wild?

Habitat:

Ecotones between longleaf pine uplands and pond pine pocosins typically and occasionally lake and pond margins, hillside seeps, boggy seeps and meadows, and low pocosins (USFWS 1995).

Distribution:

Southern coastal plain and sand hills of North Carolina and the sand hills of South Carolina (USFWS 1995).

States & Provinces:

Roughleaf Loosestrife can be found in North Carolina, South Carolina

Which CPC Partners conserve Roughleaf Loosestrife (Lysimachia asperulifolia)?

North Carolina Botanical Garden

Not Sponsored

Assigned 06/09/17

CPC's Plant Sponsorship Program provides long term stewardship of rare plants in our National Collection. We are so grateful for all our donors who have made the Plant Sponsorship Program so successful. We are in the process of acknowledging all our wonderful plant sponsorship donors on our website. This is a work in progress and will be updated regularly.

Conservation Actions

Center for Plant Conservation

11/25/2021

Johnny Randall and Michael Kunz designed and carried out a translocation of individuals due to a North Carolina Department of Transportation mitigation. Plants were transplanted to two different sites. The rhizomes were dug in the dormant season and in the growing season to compare success rates. Initially, different management techniques were employed to explore the effect of different treatments on the success of both types of rhizomes.

Nature Serve Biotics

05/02/2017

There are sixty-four extant populations, clustered into a few ""metapopulations"" in small areas of the Coastal Plain of North Carolina (with one site in adjacent South Carolina). These probably include a low number of genetic individuals as the plants are clonal and sexual reproduction rates appear to be poor. There are sixteen extirpated populations and the species continues to decline due to landscape trends that are accelerating, especially fire suppression and recreational, industrial, and residential development. Using prescribed burns as a management tool is often difficult or prohibitively dangerous due to the typically high fuel loads within the shrubby pocosins. Where burning does occur, however, the species appears to be able to rebound vigorously - at one site, a sizeable population appeared only months after a fire went through an area that had previously been thick with 2 m tall shrubs.

01/01/2010

Drainage and development of habitat Fire suppression Land conversion

01/01/2010

64 total extant populations (USFWS 1995). Several new populations in Camp Lejeune, Fort Bragg, and Sunny Point Military Ocean Terminal in NC and Fort Jackson, SC.

01/01/2010

Frantz (1983, 1984) studied aspects of basic and reproductive biology of Rough-leaved loosestrife. Thorough surveys through North Carolina have been conducted. Research has also been conducted through NCSU investigating changes in flowering stem distribution, pollinator behavior, and seed production following prescribed burns.

01/01/2010

Most sites are under some sort of management (generally prescribed fire) by a Federal or State agency or a private conservation organization. These include The Nature Conservancy, the U.S. Forest Service, U.S. Army, U.S. Marine Corps, NC State Parks, the NC Wildlife Resource Commission, and Carolina Power and Light (USFWS 1995)

01/01/2010

Research needs include population biology studies such as flower incompatibility, artificial pollination, seed dispersal and establishment, genetic variability, and comparisons between individuals and groups of individuals (TNC 1999). Management needs include more inclusive site protection and habitat management (prescribed fire).

01/01/2010

Seed collection from all extant populations