Stems: Stems decumbent to ascending or erect, several, branched near the base, 6-50 cm tall.
Leaves: Leaves opposite, lanceolate to ovate or elliptic, sessile, base somewhat clasping, 5-15 mm.
Flowers: Flowers long-stalked; corollas salverform, salmon to pink or reddish (rarely dark blue), throat purplish or bluish, 3-7 (10) mm wide, lobes finely fringed with small marginal hairs; calyces divided nearly to the base, usually not exceeding the corolla, 2-5 mm, lobes linear-lanceolate and scarious-margined; filaments long-hairy, reddish; anthers yellow; pedicels exceeding the subtending leaf, arched or curved (recurved in fruit), 10-40 mm. Flowering Jun-Aug.
Fruits: Capsules 4-6 mm.
Source: The Vascular Flora of British Columbia, draft 2014. Author: Jamie Fenneman
Habitat / Range
Introduced; infrequent in sw BC (s Vancouver I., Gulf Is., Lower Fraser Valley). Widespread cosmopolitan weed, native to Eurasia; established widely throughout North America (north to s Canada).
Source: The Vascular Flora of British Columbia, draft 2014. Author: Jamie Fenneman
Family Information
Annual or perennial herbs from fibrous roots, a taproot, a horizontal rhizome, or a small tuber (or a greatly enlarged tuber in Cyclamen); plants often with secretory resin canals that appear as dark dots or streaks. Stems trailing to erect, solitary to several, branched or simple. Leaves generally cauline (all basal in Cyclamen), alternate or opposite (sometimes whorled or pseudowhorled). Inflorescences variable, ranging from solitary axillary flowers or axillary whorls to stalked axillary racemes, terminal or axillary panicles, or erect terminal racemes. Flowers bisexual, usually stalked; corollas usually radially symmetric (sometimes lacking), rotate or campanulate to funneliform, (4-) 5- to 9-lobed; calyces (4-) 5- to 9-lobed; stamens (4-) 5-9; filaments distinct or connate; ovary superior; styles 1. Fruit a capsule, valvate or circumcissile; seeds usually brown or reddish-brown to black. Genera ~50, species ~1400 (5 genera, 12 species in B.C.). Nearly worldwide, except absent from many deserts and polar regions.
The genera here were all formerly included within a broadly-defined Primulaceae, but have since been moved to the closely related Myrsinaceae following recent molecular-genetic studies that have shown strong support for their inclusion in the latter family (Källersjö et al. 2000, Trift et al. 2002, Cholewa et al. 2009). All genera in B.C., with the exception of the genus Cyclamen, are apparently derived from within the large, highly paraphyletic genus Lysimachia (Hao et al. 2004, Anderberg et al. 2007), at least in its broadest sense, and some authors prefer to treat some or all of these genera as members of that genus so as to preserve its monophyly; however, most published phylogenies of the group (e.g., Hao et al. 2004, Manns and Anderberg 2005, Anderberg et al. 2007) suggest that it consists of a number of well-supported individual clades that might be better recognized as genera. Although such an approach would result in the redistribution of some Lysimachia species into new genera, it seems to best represent the systematics of the group and, as a result, it is the approach that is followed in this treatment (i.e., recognition of Steironema, Anagallis, and Trientalis as separate from Lysimachia). Several species of Cyclamen and Lysimachia are grown as ornamentals in southern British Columbia, including the naturalized species Cyclamen hederifolium, Lysimachia punctata, L. nummularia, and L. vulgaris.
Key to the Genera of Myrsinaceae
1a. Corolla lobes sharply reflexed; plants scapose, from a greatly enlarged, round, flattened tuber; leaves all basal, arising directly from the tuber………………………………………………………………………………………………..Cyclamen
1b. Corollas usually rotate or campanulate to funneliform, but corolla lobes never sharply reflexed; plants not scapose, from fibrous roots, short rhizomes, or small, slightly enlarged, ascending or horizontal tubers; leaves all cauline……………..……...........2
2a. Plants annual (rarely perennial); fibrous-rooted to taprooted…………….……………………………...………..….....…Anagallis
2b. Plants perennial; from rhizome or a small, slightly thickened, horizontal to ascending tuber…………...…………………...........….4
5b. Flowers usually in terminal or axillary racemes or axillary whorls, if solitary and axillary then stems creeping and leaves nearly orbicular……………………………………………………………………………………..……Lysimachia (in part)
4b. Corollas whitish to pinkish, or corollas absent and calyces instead corolla-like and whitish or pinkish…...………….…..…......6
6a. Plants succulent, glaucous; leaves distributed throughout the stems; flowers sessile; corollas absent; calyx lobes whitish or pinkish, corolla-like; plants restricted to saline or alkaline habitats…….…….…….…………...……...Lysimachia (in part)
6b. Plants not succulent, not glaucous; leaves mostly in a single pseudowhorl at top of the stem (stem leaves reduced or scale-like); flowers long-stalked; corollas present; calyces green, not corolla like; plants widespread in terrestrial and some wetland habitats, but never associated with saline or alkaline habitats……………………...……………………..Trientalis
Source: The Vascular Flora of British Columbia, draft 2014. Author: Jamie Fenneman
Genus Information
Perennial, rhizomatous herbs, sometimes succulent. Stems ascending to erect or sometimes decumbent, simple or branched. Leaves all cauline, opposite or whorled (sometimes becoming alternate above), entire, simple, sessile to petiolate, ovate or oblong to linear-lanceolate. Inflorescences terminal and/or axillary racemes, or flowers axillary (solitary to several per axil); often bracteate. Flowers sessile to pedicellate; corollas usually present (absent in L. maritima), yellow, deeply 5- (9-) lobed, yellow (often with reddish speckling or markings), lobes linear-lanceolate to ovate; calyces green to pinkish or whitish, deeply 5- (9-) lobed, lobes exceeding the tube; stamens 5, included or exserted; filaments distinct or connate at the base. Fruits globose capsules, 5-valvate; seeds 1-20. About 150 spp. (6 spp. in B.C.). Nearly worldwide.
Lysimachia is a large, virtually cosmopolitan genus that reaches its greatest diversity in temperate Eurasia (especially eastern Asia). The circumscription of the genus presented here differs from most recent treatments in that it includes the formerly monotypic genus Glaux [= Lysimachia maritima], which has repeatedly been shown to be an apetalous member of Lysimachia (Anderberg et al. 2007, Cholewa 2009c) and is now generally included within that genus. This treatment of Lysimachia also excludes Steironema ciliatum [= Lysimachia ciliata], as that species is now known to be relatively distantly related to the species here (Hao et al. 2004, Manns and Anderberg 2005, Anderberg et al. 2007); see Steironema for more information. Some species are popular horticultural subjects, including several that have escaped and become established in the province.
Source: The Vascular Flora of British Columbia, draft 2014. Author: Jamie Fenneman
