Kansas Wildflowers and Grasses

BUSHY SEEDBOX

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Ludwigia alternifolia L.

Cherokee County, Kansas

Perennial

Height: 20-48 inches

Family: Onagraceae - Evening Primrose Family

Flowering Period: July, August, September

Also Called:

Rattle-box, smooth seedbox, square-pod water-primrose.

Stems:

Erect, branched, angled above, nearly smooth to minutely hairy, often reddish.

Leaves:

Alternate, simple, lanceolate, 2 to 4 inches long, usually less than 1/2 inch wide, pale below; margins entire; tips pointed; short-stalked or blade tapering to sessile base; upper leaves reduced in size.

Inflorescences:

Solitary in upper leaf axils, few to many; stalks to 1/5 inch long.

Flowers:

Showy, about 3/4 inch across; sepals 4, egg-shaped to lance-ovate, 1/3 to 2/5 inch long, spreading, often reddish, tips pointed; petals 4, oblong-ovate, 1/3 to 2/5 inch long, yellow; stamens 4.

Fruits:

Capsule, about 1/5 inch long and wide, 4-sided above, rounded below, glabrous or hairy; seeds tiny, egg-shaped, yellowish-brown.

Habitat:

Wet sites; edges of streams, lakes and marshes, moist prairie ravines, roadside ditches.

Distribution:

East 1/2 of Kansas.

Comments:

The petals drop easily, often lasting less than a day. When the capsule is shaken, the seeds rattle, which gives rise to the common name "rattle-box". Ludwigia is named in honor of Christian Gottlieb Ludwig, a German botanist in the late 18th Century.

Bushy seedbox flower