Purple loosestrife
ലൈത്രം സാലികാരിയ
Lythrum salicaria L.
- light
- Full sun
- water
- Medium
- tall
- 1.2 m
- wide
- 91 cm
Lythraceae
Also called Purple-loosestrife, Purple lythrum, Spiked loostrife, Salicaire, Bouquet violet
Formerly Lythron salicarium, Lythrum alternifolium, Lythrum altissimum, Lythrum anceps, and 14 more
When it flowers
Not known yet in the tropics: too few flowering observations to read a season from.
Read from iNaturalist photographs of it in flower. A month counts at 50% of the best month's flowering share (smoothed over three months) and 10% of its flowering count, from at least 100 flowering observations in the band.
If a child, a pet or anyone may have eaten a plant, contact a doctor or vet straight away, or call the National Poisons Information Centre (AIIMS, New Delhi) on 1800 116 117, free and open 24 hours.
Something wrong with it?About it
- Grows as
- Perennial or helophyteKew's checklist, not yet checked
- Climate
- TemperateKew's checklist, not yet checked
- Wild in
- Temp. Eurasia, NW. Africa, Ethiopia, AustraliaKew's checklist, not yet checked
- Light
- Full sun (6 h or more)Read from NC State Extension, one source
- Height
- 61 cm to 1.8 mRead from NC State Extension, one source
- Spread
- 61 cm to 1.2 mRead from NC State Extension, one source
- Water
- Average: moist, well drainedRead from NC State Extension, one source
- Flowers
- Pink, purpleRead from NC State Extension, one source
- Coldest it survives
- -40 °C (USDA zone 3a)Read from NC State Extension, one source
Not known yet: heat, hottest it survives.
In other languages (12)
- French
- Salicaire commune, Salicaire, lythrum salicaire
- German
- Gewöhnlicher Blutweiderich
- root
- LYTSAL, Créachtach, Արենածաղիկ սովորական
- Catalan
- salicària
- Portuguese
- erva-carapau, salgueirinha
- Finnish
- rantakukka, pohjanrantakukka
- Italian
- salcerella
- Hebrew
- שנית גדולה
- Swedish
- fackelblomster
- Japanese
- エゾミソハギ, 蝦夷禊萩, ミソハギ
- Danish
- Kattehale
- Norwegian Bokmål
- kattehale
Where this comes from
- iNaturalist, read 2026-10-25, CC0-1.0 (observation counts)
- Wikidata, read 2026-10-26, CC0-1.0
- Kew's checklist, read 2026-10-24, CC-BY-4.0
- NC State Extension, read 2026-10-25, fact, cited
- Wikimedia Commons, read 2026-10-25, CC BY-SA 3.0
- iNaturalist, read 2026-10-25, CC BY
- iNaturalist, read 2026-10-25, CC BY-SA
- iNaturalist, read 2026-10-25, CC BY-SA
- 3D model: Lythrum salicaria (built for Vanagrha) by Vanagrha, own
A fact “checked by a majority of its sources” was settled by a vote of the pages it was read from, not by a person reading it; one marked “one source” rests on that page alone. Anything else not marked checked has not been checked yet. Where nothing is known, the page says so rather than guess.