Lysimachia lanceolata – Lanceleaf Loosestrife – 3-Quart

This graceful, low growing plant native to the central US really puts on a show in the sunny border in almost any soil. Has a dense habit unlike some other native loosestrife species. Thin purple stems provide a good contrast with the green foliage. Leaves are elongated, lance-shaped, providing an airy, delicate texture. Small yellow flowers emerge on stalks from the upper leaves’ axils and nod downward. Spreads by rhizomes to form colonies. The flowers are unusual in that they produce a floral oil, rather than nectar. Because of this, they attract the short-tongued Melittid bee, Macropsis steironematis which collects both the floral oil and pollen and forms a pollen-ball that becomes the food of its developing bee-larvae.