_Lysimachia quadrifolia_
_Flowers_--Yellow, streaked with, dark red, 1/2 in. across or less; each
on a thread-like, spreading footstem from a leaf axil. Calyx, 5 to 7
parted; corolla of 5 to 7 spreading lobes, and as many stamens inserted
on the throat; 1 pistil. _Stem:_ Slender, erect, 1 to 3 ft. tall, leafy.
_Leaves:_ In whorls of 4 (rarely in 3’s to 7’s), lance-shaped or oblong,
entire, black dotted.
_Preferred Habitat_--Open woodland, thickets, roadsides; moist,
sandy soil.
_Flowering Season_--June-August.
_Distribution_--Georgia and lllinois, north to New Brunswick.
Medieval herbalists usually recorded anything that “Plinie saieth” with
profoundest respect; not always so, quaint old Parkinson. Speaking of
the common _(vulgaris)_ Wild Loosestrife of Europe, a rather stout,
downy species with terminal clusters of good-sized, yellow flowers, that
was once cultivated in our Eastern states, and has sparingly escaped
from gardens, he thus refers to the reputation given it by the Roman
naturalist: “It is believed to take away strife, or debate between ye
beasts, not onely those that are yoked together, but even those that are
wild also, by making them tame and quiet ... if it be either put about
their yokes or their necks,” significantly adding, “which how true, I
leave to them shall try and find it soe.” Our slender, symmetrical,
common loosestrife, with its whorls of leaves and little star-shaped
blossoms on thread-like pedicels at regular intervals up the stem, is
not even distantly related to the wonderful Purple Loosestrife.
Another common, lower-growing species, the Bulb-bearing Loosestrife (_L.
terrestris_), blooms from July to September and shows a decided
preference for swamps and ditches throughout a range which extends from
Manitoba and Arkansas to the Atlantic Ocean.