Species
+

Lythrum salicaria L.

Blutweiderich, Gewöhnlicher Blutweiderich (DE), Hairy Purple Loosestrife, Purple Loosestrife

Climate known 51 photographs
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Every figure on this page is derived from public data by a stated rule and says its source; nothing here is written by a person or a model, except the Wikipedia passage, which is quoted and marked as such. How it is made.

Summary

Lythrum salicaria or purple-loosestrife is a flowering plant belonging to the family Lythraceae. It should not be confused with other plants sharing the name loosestrife that are members of the genus Lysimachia in the family Primulaceae. This herbaceous perennial plant is native to temperate regions of Europe, Asia, northern Africa, and eastern Australia.

Text from Wikipedia, “Lythrum salicaria”, CC BY-SA 4.0, quoted as written. Kept separate from everything derived here.

About the genus · Lythrum

Lythrum is a genus of 38 species of flowering plants native to the temperate world. Commonly known as loosestrife, they are among 32 genera of the family Lythraceae.

Text from Wikipedia, “Lythrum”, CC BY-SA 4.0, quoted as written.

Family
Lythraceae
Described by
L.
Native to
Denmark, Finland, Great Britain +75
Wild records
636 in range· 156 open

At a glance

Warmest month
22°C
Jul, mean day; nights 14 °C (CHELSA)
Rain
855mm/yr
12 wet months · peak Oct 80 mm (CHELSA)
Light
4–34DLI
mol/m²/day, winter to summer, open sky (CHELSA shortwave)
In short condensed by rule from the cultivation cards · not written by a person
Rain rule: no season, 70% of the rain takes 8 months (June to January in the northern hemisphere). Habitat rain 855 mm a year, wettest October at 80 mm, driest April at 47 mm (habitat calendar, northern hemisphere). Open sky over the habitat: 4 to 34 mol/m²/day. Cold floor -2.9 °C (1st-percentile habitat night, NASA POWER).
Each sentence is one card's own one-line form, written by the same rule as the card (Its year, Rain, Light, Temperature); the note cannot say what a card does not. Months are given for the northern hemisphere (set your site in Settings to change this), and the habitat's own alongside. The cards · the figures.

Also known as ? anceps Koehne; ? glabricaule Koehne; Chabraea vulgaris Bubani; Lythron salicarium (L.) St.-Lag.; Lythrum alternifolium Lorey and 45 more.

Cultivation

Its year Rain rule: no season, 70% of the rain takes 8 months (June to January in the northern hemisphere).

This species’ habitat figures, and what two fixed rules read from them.

The rain rule reads no season: 70% of the year's rain (617 mm of 855 mm) takes 8 months, June to January. Mean temperature moves 14.9 °C between the warmest and coldest month. Months are the habitat's, northern hemisphere; shifted six months for a southern-hemisphere collection: December to July.

Read from the median year of CHELSA monthly rainfall and mean temperature across the envelope cells: the rain rule takes the smallest set of months carrying 70% of the rain and calls it winter when its mean is more than half a degree below the year's, summer when more than that above, and neither in between; the temperature rule, used only under 120 mm, names the cooler six months when they are at least a degree cooler than the other six. Months are shifted for the other hemisphere only where the temperature curve gives a season to reverse. A reading of the curves, not an observation of the plant.

Rain Habitat rain 855 mm a year, wettest October at 80 mm, driest April at 47 mm (habitat calendar, northern hemisphere).

This species’ habitat figures, with their source.

855 mm a year at the habitat, 617 mm of it June to January. Wettest month October at 80 mm, driest April at 47 mm. Across the envelope cells the year's total runs 630 mm to 1119 mm (10th to 90th percentile of each cell's own year) (median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA; habitat calendar, northern hemisphere).

CHELSA monthly precipitation, median year across the envelope cells. The rain that falls where the species is recorded; nothing about how the plant takes water.

Light Open sky over the habitat: 4 to 34 mol/m²/day.

This species’ habitat figures, with their source.

Open sky over the habitat: 4 to 34 mol/m²/day across the year (daily light integral, median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA; the lowest 10th-percentile month across the cells is 3, the highest 90th-percentile month 45).

CHELSA shortwave radiation at each envelope cell, a daily-mean flux taken to a daily total and converted at 2.07 mol of PAR per MJ. The sky over the habitat, measured; what reaches a plant under a rock, a shrub or a shade cloth is not.

Warmth and air Cold floor -2.9 °C (1st-percentile habitat night, NASA POWER).

This species’ habitat figures, with their source.

Temperature

Coldest: the 1st-percentile night over 44 years at the typical cell is -2.9 °C, the absolute minimum -10.8 °C, about 17 frost nights a year (NASA POWER daily minima). Warmest: the 99th-percentile day is 20.7 °C. Monthly means: coldest night 0.6 °C in January (across the envelope cells -4.7 °C to 13.3 °C), warmest day 21.8 °C in July (median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA). Cold floor: -2.9 °C, which is the 1st-percentile night over 44 years at the typical cell (NASA POWER).

NASA POWER daily minima and maxima 1981–2024 at the typical cell, lapse-corrected to its elevation; CHELSA monthly means, median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA. The cold floor is the figure named in its sentence. Not a measured survival limit for any plant in a pot.

Humidity

Relative humidity at the habitat: 60 to 68% across the year (monthly means, median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA). A figure about the air, saying nothing about how the plant takes water.

CHELSA relative humidity, median year across the envelope cells.

The figures the cards read from are in Climate below, and where they came from in Natural habitat.

Climate across the habitat

Habitat climate through the yearMean day from 5 °C in Jan to 22 °C in Jul; mean night from 1 °C in Jan to 14 °C in Jul. The cold quarter, Dec to Feb, is the three months around the coldest night. 855 mm of rain a year, most in Oct. The bands show the 10th to 90th percentile across 559 habitat cells. Over 44 years at the typical cell the absolute minimum was -10.8 °C and the 99th-percentile day 20.7 °C; neither is dated to a month. Beneath: daily light integral and relative humidity through the year, each on its own scale.-20°-10°10°20°30°frost20.7° 99th-percentile day (undated)-10.8° lowest night in 44 yrs (undated)°C · day and nightcold quarter0255075100125mm rainDLI 4–34RH 60–68 %JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
day night rain 10th–90th percentile across 559 habitat cells cold quarter: the three months around the coldest night extremes over 44 years at the typical cell, marked at the edge: undated DLI, mol/m²/dayRH %each on its own scale
Figures by month
JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
Day °C5 / 2–246 / 2–2310 / 5–2113 / 10–1917 / 15–2020 / 13–2322 / 12–2622 / 14–2618 / 15–2214 / 11–199 / 6–216 / 3–22
Night °C1 / -5–131 / -5–133 / -2–125 / 2–109 / 6–1111 / 7–1414 / 6–1614 / 7–1611 / 8–148 / 5–114 / 0–112 / -3–12
Rain mm76 / 41–10660 / 35–9567 / 40–8847 / 35–8764 / 45–9772 / 50–9679 / 46–9775 / 49–10475 / 54–9980 / 53–11280 / 57–10680 / 53–117
DLI5 / 4–4510 / 8–4017 / 16–3227 / 24–3233 / 18–3734 / 14–4033 / 16–4028 / 22–3519 / 18–3012 / 10–346 / 5–414 / 3–44
RH %67 / 56–6965 / 57–6763 / 57–6460 / 57–6260 / 57–6260 / 58–6461 / 58–6461 / 58–6363 / 59–6464 / 58–6667 / 57–6968 / 57–70

Each figure is the median across the 559 grid cells holding the 633 in-range records, with the 10th–90th percentile span across those cells after the slash where it differs. Extremes and elevation were read at the typical cell 662:3767 (56.875, 8.375). Over 44 years there: absolute minimum -10.8 °C, 1st-percentile night -2.9 °C, 99th-percentile day 20.7 °C. Normals: CHELSA V2.1 1981–2010 climatology, 0.05° cells (each the mean of ~36 1 km pixels). Envelope: median and 10th–90th percentile of each month across the 559 distinct grid cells holding the 633 in-range records; extremes and elevation at the typical cell 662:3767 (its coldest month's mean night nearest the median across cells); its position is the cell centre. Extremes: NASA POWER (MERRA-2) daily 1981–2024, cell 57.00_8.125, lapse-corrected +12 m at 6.5 °C/km. Elevation: ETOPO 2022, 14 m (cell mean).

Natural habitat

Native range as published by WCVP; the marker is where the records are densest and decides nothing: the climate was read across every in-range record's cell, not at the marker.
Openly licensed records inside the range, framed on where they fall.
NativeDenmark, Finland, Great Britain, Ireland, Norway, Sweden, Austria, Belgium, Czechoslovakia, Germany, Hungary, Netherlands, Poland, Switzerland, Corse, France, Portugal, Sardegna, Spain, Albania, Bulgaria, Greece, Italy, Romania, Sicilia, Turkey-in-Europe, Yugoslavia, Belarus, Baltic States, Krym, Central European Russia, East European Russia, North European Russia, South European Russia, Northwest European Russia, Ukraine, Algeria, Morocco, Tunisia, Ethiopia, Altay, Irkutsk, West Siberia, Amur, Khabarovsk, Kuril Is., Primorye, Sakhalin, Kazakhstan, Kirgizistan, Turkmenistan, Tadzhikistan, Uzbekistan, North Caucasus, Transcaucasus, Afghanistan, Iran, Iraq, Lebanon-Syria, Palestine, Turkey, China South-Central, Inner Mongolia, Manchuria, China North-Central, Qinghai, Tibet, Xinjiang, Mongolia, Japan, Korea, Pakistan, West Himalaya, New South Wales, Queensland, South Australia, Tasmania, Victoria· introduced: Cape Provinces, Buryatiya, Alaska, Alberta, British Columbia, Manitoba, Saskatchewan, New Brunswick, Newfoundland, Nova Scotia, Ontario, Prince Edward I., Québec, Colorado, Idaho, Montana, Oregon, Washington, Wyoming, Illinois, Iowa, Kansas, Minnesota, Missouri, North Dakota, Nebraska, Oklahoma, South Dakota, Wisconsin, Connecticut, Indiana, Maine, Massachusetts, Michigan, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Rhode I., Vermont, West Virginia, California, Nevada, Utah, New Mexico, Texas, Alabama, Arkansas, Delaware, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maryland, Mississippi, North Carolina, Tennessee, Virginia, District of Columbia, Peru, Chile Central, Chile South
Kew's description“perennial or helophyte” · “temperate”· quoted from WCVP, RBG Kew (CC BY 4.0); not derived here
Map marker51.007, 4.96 · in the densest population, 222 records (35% of those in range)
Evidence usedThe map marker and the climate envelope rest on all 636 georeferenced records inside the native range; the map shows only the 156 openly licensed ones, which alone would put the marker 593 km away. 122 records outside the range (gardens, roadsides, misidentifications) ignored. 3 in-range records are placed to worse than 10 km and stay on the map but off the climate.
The map markerthe map marker: the openly licensed record nearest the middle of the densest 1° population of the 636 in-range records; it decides nothing.

Photographs

Lythrum salicariaLythrum salicariaLythrum salicariaLythrum salicariaLythrum salicariaLythrum salicariaLythrum salicariaLythrum salicaria

Photographs: (c) Douglas Goldman, some rights reserved (CC BY-SA) (8).

Photographs: iNaturalist and GBIF media did not answer when this page was built; what is shown came from the sources that did.

Papers naming this species

Works whose title or abstract names Lythrum salicaria, most cited first, from OpenAlex (CC0). A mention, not a cultivation source: nothing on this page is drawn from them.

Rapid Adaptation to Climate Facilitates Range Expansion of an Invasive Plant
Robert I. Colautti, Spencer C. H. Barrett (2013) · Science
COMPETITION FOR POLLINATION BETWEEN AN INVASIVE SPECIES (PURPLE LOOSESTRIFE) AND A NATIVE CONGENER
Beverly J. Brown, Randall J. Mitchell, Shirley A. Graham (2002) · Ecology
Impact and management of purple loosestrife (Lythrum salicaria) in North America
Bernd Blossey, Luke C Skinner, Janith Taylor (2001) · Biodiversity and Conservation
Assessing the Economic, Environmental, and Societal Losses from Invasive Plants on Rangeland and Wildlands 1
Caroline Duncan, John J. Jachetta, Melissa Brown, Vanelle F. Carrithers (2004) · Weed Technology
Evolutionary constraints on adaptive evolution during range expansion in an invasive plant
Robert I. Colautti, Christopher G. Eckert, Spencer C. H. Barrett (2010) · Proceedings of the Royal Society B Biological Sciences

Similar habitat climate the 6 species whose habitat climate is nearest this one's: mean day and night, month by month, and rain on a log scale, in calendar order, so a habitat with the same seasons six months out is far, not near. Nothing else counts: not range, not family.

History & registers

Where this page came from built 2026-09-20 · dossier v2 · node
gbif.species answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-20 (offline re-derivation; the backbone was not asked)
gbif.synonyms answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-20 (offline re-derivation; the backbone was not asked)
gbif.vernacular answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-20 (offline re-derivation; the backbone was not asked)
wcvp.distribution answered
gbif.occurrences answeredGBIF occurrence search API
climate answered
wikidata answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-20 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive)
wikipedia answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-20; this build: skipped
inat.taxon not askedcarried from build of 2026-09-20 (rederive)
inat.photos.wild answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-20; this build: skipped
inat.photos.cultivated nothing to reportcarried from build of 2026-09-20 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive)
commons nothing to reportcarried from build of 2026-09-20 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive)
gbif.media did not answercarried from build of 2026-09-20 (rederive); that build: api.gbif.org not asked: offline re-derivation
openalex answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-20; this build: skipped

Every upstream is recorded as having answered, reported nothing, or refused. Only “nothing to report” is ever shown as an absence. Records came from 19 datasets via GBIF.org; each carries its own licence.