Purple Loosestrife

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Purple Loosestrife

Purple Loosestrife

The scene is breathtakingly beautiful, a thick brush of purple flowers blankets
Canada's wetlands. This blanket silences the expected sounds of the wetland
environment, birds chirping, ducks splashing, insects buzzing and animals
thriving. This unnatural silence is disturbing, the favourite flowers that used
to litter this landscape are no longer visible, the water that used to ripple
continuously is perfectly still. The wetland is dead, except for this
overpowering, hardy purple flower that has choked out all other vegetation and
species. Purple loosestrife now controls this landscape.

Purple loosestrife is an exotic species that was introduced to North America
from Europe during the early 1800's. Europeans sailing to North America would
fill their ships ballast with wet sand taken from shores of Europe, a habitat
where purple loosestrife thrived. Upon arrival in North America the ballast
would be dumped overboard on the shoreline. By 1830 the plant was well
established along the New England seaboard. Purple loosestrife seeds were also
found in sheep and livestock feed that was imported from Europe during this
period. This new organism was introduced to a new habitat free from traditional
parasites, predators and competitors, purple loosestrife thrived in the
environmental conditions and by 1880 was rapidly spreading north and west
through the canal and marine routes. Purple loosestrife stands also increased
due to the importation of seeds and root stalks by horticulturists. It was
introduced to many communities as an herb, an ornamental garden flower and as a
desirable honey plant.

One of the earliest reported studies of purple loosestrife being a problem in
Canada was documented by Mr. Louis - Marie, in 1944. He stated that purple
loosestrife was invading the St. Lawrence flood plain pastures between Montreal
and Quebec. At that time Louis - Marie conducted a study to find suitable
control methods for purple loosestrife. His results indicated that repeated
mowing, continuous grazing, deep discing and harrowing were effective in keeping
the spread of purple loosestrife controlled on agriculture land. Since the
1940's purple loosestrife infestations have increased greatly and the plant is
now a major problem threatening many wetland ecosystems across North America.

Figure 1 - Purple loosestrife flowers.
        (Parker 1993)

Lythrum Salicaria, commonly known as purple loosestrife belongs to the
Lythracea

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