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Purple-Leaved
Willowherb
Epilobium ciliatum
Synonyms: E. glandulosum or E. watsonii. Other names: Hairy Willowherb.
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Family: Onagraceae,
Evening Primrose
Genus: Epilobium
Description
General: perennial, spreading by short rootstocks. Stems
30-100 cm tall, usually simple below but rather freely
branched above, often glandular above, especially in the
flower cluster, weakly to densely hairy, the hairs either in
lines down from leaf bases or more general.
 Leaves: basal and opposite, short-stalked to almost
stalkless, narrowly lanceolate to rather broadly ovate-
lanceolate, 3-7 cm long, generally shallowly sharp-toothed.
 Flowers: white or cream to deep purplish-red, with 4
notched petals, 3-10 mm long, often blooming the first
season. Several erect flowers in branched clusters. Sepals
2-5 mm long, often purplish. Stigma entire or if lobed the
lobes usually joined.
Flowering time: June-August.
 Fruits: erect, linear pods, 4-8 cm long, with flat, stiff,
short hairs to glandular-hairy. Seeds 0.5-1.2 mm long,
distinctly crested with tiny bumps in numerous parallel
longitudinal lines, the coma white.
Sub species: ssp. ciliatum and ssp. glandulosum, see
below.
Distribution
Moist to wet, open or wooded sites, plains to montane
zone, in w. and c. parts of MT Also from AK to CO. |
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(click on image for full size)
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(click on images for full size)
Sub species:
ssp. ciliatum Raf.:
Flower cluster not glandular, often greyish with short, flat-lying to curved hairs, not common.
ssp. glandulosum (Lehm.) Hoch & Raven:
Flower cluster from sparsely to densely glandular, more common.
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