Ammannia coccinea Rottb.

Valley Redstem; Scarlet Loosestrife

Herb

Annual

Vascular

Scarlet Loosestrife is a native annual herb in the Loosestrife family (Lythraceae). It can be found throughout Alabama. Scarlet Loosestrife occurs in swamps, along the margins of ponds and lakes, along streams and rivers, and in wet roadside ditches. Stems are succulent, glabrous, green in color, and often branched from near the base. The stems are slightly angled. Leaves are opposite, sessile, lanceolate in outline, with entire margins. The bases of the leaves are auriculate clasping. Leaves are glabrous or scabrous. Flowers are produce in sessile axillary cymes of 3-5 flowers in the axils of the upper leaves. Each flower has a tubular calyx and no or 4 pink petals. The fruit is a globose, purple-red capsule. Seed are numerous and yellow in color. The fruit and foliage of Scarlet Loosestrife is consumed by ducks and other waterfowl.--A. Diamond

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Native FACW+ (NWPL)

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