Rob's plants
home garden plants wildlife seed photos
plant sale journal topics plantlinks fun guestbook

Decodon verticillatus

 
Decodon verticillatus
Common name water willow; swamp loosestrife
Family lythraceae
Life cycle perennial
Flowers pink (August)
Size 2-8'
Cultural notes marginal aquatic

A relative of purple loosestrife, which appears on just about all invasive lists in the US, but this is a native wildflower that does not appear to be an ecological problem. It's planted in the bog filtration area of our large pond, where its lax habit causes it to weave through the more upright plants there. It spreads by rooting where a trailing stem touches the water.

water willow; swamp loosestrife
As the season progresses, its leaves change color from the early season's bright green. By late August (above), the green alternates with burgundy; by early October (below) the transformation is complete, and the plant is evenly colored in a wine coat.

Decodon verticillatus
water willow; swamp loosestrife
After several years of just holding its own in the tangled bog zone, it started emerging as one of the dominant plants. The abundant regrowth in this mid-May picture shows that it will once again be a prominent player this year.
Decodon verticillatus
Late May brings lush foliage

We left this plant behind in our Pennsylvania garden (and wish it well); we don't grow it in Houston.

One or more images of this plant are included in my stock photo catalog

About my plant portraits
PlantLinks to other web pages about Decodon verticillatus


I welcome comments about my web pages; feel free to use the form below to leave feedback about this particular page. For the benefit of other visitors to these pages, I will list any relevant comments you leave, and if appropriate, I will update my page to correct mis-information. Faced with an ever-increasing onslaught of spam, I'm forced to discard any comments including html markups. Please submit your comment as plain text. If you have a comment about the website as a whole, please leave it in my guestbook. If you have a question that needs a personal response, please e-mail me.

Your name

Your comments