Common name: Creeping Loosestrife, Konasubi (Japan)
Lysimachia japonica Thunb. APNI* Synonyms: Lysimachia maculata R.Br. APNI*
Description: Trailing, stoloniferous herb; stems ± prostrate, rooting at lower nodes, to 18 cm long, with ± retrorse, often slightly crisped, segmented, hyaline hairs.
Leaves mostly opposite; lamina ovate or broad-ovate to ± spathulate, mostly 0.8–1.7 cm long and 5–15 mm wide, with scattered minute reddish glandular dots (glandular punctate) and hyaline, segmented hairs; petiole 2–10 mm long, narrowly winged.
Flowers solitary, axillary, usually 5–8 mm diam.; pedicel 1.5–5 mm long, without a basal bract; sepals 4–7 mm long, lanceolate with acuminate to ± subulate apex and scattered segmented hairs, glandular-spotted; petals not or scarcely exceeding the sepals, 3.5–5.5 mm long, yellow; filaments glabrous.
Capsule globose or subglobose, 2–4 mm diam., much shorter than persistent calyx, usually minutely hairy at apex, longitudinally splitting from apex by 5 valves, many-seeded.
Flowering: mainly November – January; also recorded flowering in April and possibly later.
Distribution and occurrence: mainly north from the Williams River, with an historic (1881) record from Tilba Tilba and a more recent (1996) record from near Bega; uncertain status records from Victoria; widespread from Japan and Taiwan west to the Himalaya region, India and Sri Lanka and south through Indochina to Indonesia and Papua New Guinea. Habitat: grows in moist situations, in and on margins of rainforest, on stream banks and in swamps.
NSW subdivisions: NC, SC, NT
Other Australian states: Vic.
Formerly in Myrsinaceae.
Text by P.G. Kodela (April 2006).
Taxon concept: Flora of NSW Vol. 1 (1990); revised in P.G. Kodela, Telopea 11(2): 147–154 (2006).
APNI* Provides a link to the Australian Plant Name Index (hosted by the Australian National Botanic Gardens) for comprehensive bibliographic data
***The AVH map option provides a detailed interactive Australia wide distribution map drawn from collections held by all major Australian herbaria participating in the Australian Virtual Herbarium project.
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