Lysimachia.
Family Primulaceae > Subfamily Myrsinoideae > Genus Lysimachia.
Originally in Family Primulaceae Lysimachia was transferred to Family Myrsinaceae.
Family Myrsinaceae was later reduced to sub-family Myrsinoideae in Family Primulaceae.
Plants of the World Online (Kew) recognises 283 species but some other authors only recognise 150 to 250.
Australia has 8 species with some naturalised.
Most are perennial herbs with a few sub-shrubs having a slightly woody base.
Young plants may have a basal rosette.
Stems are prostrate to erect and grow quickly.
Prostrate stems root at the nodes forming new plants.
Stems may have no hairs or a few when young.
There may be glands just under the surface which look like small dots.
Leaves can be opposite, alternate or sometimes whorled.
They have no petiole or a very short one.
The elliptic or almost round blades may have glands.
Inflorescences are a single axillary flower or a terminal or axillary branched or unbranched cluster (a panicle or raceme).
Flowers are almost always on a pedicel and some have bracts.
The 5 (6) sepals may be free but are usually slightly joined at the base.
The lobes often have a thin, whitish semi-transparent edge (hyaline).
The small flowers have 5 (6) petals with their bases fused into a short tube.
Edges of the spreading lobes can be smooth or toothed.
Petals are white, yellow, orange, red, blue and rarely pale pink or purplish.
The wide lobes are often marked with lines or dots.
The 5 (6) stamens are opposite the petals which alternate with the sepals.
The filaments usually insert onto the base of the corolla.
Their bases may be free or fused into a ring or a short stamen tube.
Filaments, especially the bases often have multi-cellular hairs.
There may be small staminodes between the stamens.
The basi- or dorsi-fixed anthers open inwards through lateral slits or apical pores.
The ovoid or almost spherical superior ovary consists of 5 fused carpels.
There is a single locule with few to many centrally attached ovules.
A slender style has a small roughly spherical stigma.
The fruit are capsules most of which open, from the top down, into 5 valves.
Some open around the centre (circumsessile) and a few, with a single seed do not open.
The 1 to many round or ellipsoidal seeds are usually 3-angled and sometimes have wings.
They are dark brown with tiny papillae on the surface.
Plants in Australia hybridise easily.
J.F.
