Plants of the Eloise Butler Wildflower Garden

Notes: Whorled Loosestrife is not indigenous to the Garden. Eloise Butler introduced it to the Garden area on April 26, 1913 with plants sourced from Kelsey's Nursery in North Carolina. The next notations in her log raise a question as to source. In 1915 she wrote she discovered it in bloom and it had been introduced in sod with another plant acquired from Eagle Creek near Savage. In 1919 she noted planting 2 plants she got from a meadow near the golf links of Glenwood Park. More were added in 1925, '29 and '30, but all from sources in Wisconsin.

Questions: Whorled Loosestrife is considered native to Minnesota but in opposition to Eloise Butler's notes, it has been found in Minnesota only in Pine County. Did she mis-identify it? or was it growing in those places in her day and no collections had ever been made? The Minnesota DNR states the species was found in Pine County only in 1980 and since then about 13 additional sites have been found, all in Pine County and most are in St. Croix State Park, somewhat protected. The last specimen collected for the University Herbarium was in the year 2000. The plant is listed on the State's "Special Concern" plant list. Per the DNR "A species is considered a species of special concern if, although the species is not endangered or threatened, it is extremely uncommon in Minnesota, or has unique or highly specific habitat requirements and deserves careful monitoring of its status." Thus, the population in the Eloise Butler Wildflower Garden is very special. It is much more prevalent in Wisconsin. Minnesota is at the extreme western edge of the plants range. It is found eastward from here to the coast, both in the U.S. and in Canada. Martha Crone listed it on her 1951 census but with the now unaccepted name of Steironema verticillatum and it has been in the Garden on all later census reports.

Fourteen species of Lysimachia are of record in Minnesota per the U of M Herbarium as of 2018; several have not been collected in recent decades. Ten are still listed currently by the DNR on their plant surveys. Of those nine are native, one is introduced. The species of Lysimachia of record in the Garden, current and historical, are: Starflower, L. borealis; Fringed Loosestrife, Lysimachia ciliata; Moneywort, L. nummularia (the introduced species); Prairie Loosestrife, Lysimachia quadriflora; Whorled Loosestrife, L. quadrifolia; Swamp Candles, Lysimachia terrestis; Tufted Loosestrife, Lysimachia thyrsiflora; Garden Loosestrife, Lysimachia vulgaris.

Family Change: Some of the leading references have moved the species of Lysimachia from the Primrose (Primulaceae) family into the Myrsinaceae plant family following the lead of Flora of North America (FNA) (Ref. #W7). The U of M Checklist of the Vascular Flora of Minnesota (Ref.#28C) follows this classification. FNA states: “M. Källersjö et al. (2000) and B. Ståhl and A. A. Anderberg (2004) removed the nonrosette terrestrial members from Primulaceae in the broad sense and placed them in the Myrsinaceae, which are further distinguished by leaves and calyx often dotted with yellow or dark streaks, flowers with relatively shorter corolla tubes, seeds immersed in placentae, and wood devoid of rays or with multiseriate rays only.”

Lore: As explained above, the common perception that a loosestrife plant has soothing powers over animals led people to tie a branch to the yolk of oxen, making them easier to handle. The plant is known to repel gnats and other irritating insects which maybe explains why the animals were easier to handle. Pliny the elder wrote that the odor of loosestrife would keep snakes away.