LUDWIGIA HEXAPETALA


Common names: Water Primrose, Hairy Water Primrose
Description: Perennial, free-floating herb. May form dense, floating mats up to 3 feet tall.
Flowers: Flowers are solitary and about an inch in diameter, having 5 to six bright yellow petals. The flowers may be covered in hair, especially near the stalks.
Leaves: Early in the season it produces rosettes of smooth, shiny, slighty oval leaves. Later in the season, the leaves elongate and begin to have pointed tips. Leaves are arranged alternately and usually hairy, as are the stems.
Reproduction: Reproduces by seed and by vegetative fragmentation.
Flowering: Late April through end of August/ early September.
Habitat and Ecology: Native to Central and South America. Occurs as a non-native in marshes, ditches and lake margins where it forms large mats- shading out native poulations.