Plants of South Eastern New South Wales
Ludwigia peruviana
Common name
Ludwigia, Peruvian primrose, Water primrose, Primrose willow
Family
Onagraceae
Where found
Moist or wet areas along creek banks, swampy marshes, and wetlands. Aquatic in stationary or slow-moving water. Sydney area. Rarely elsewhere.
Notes
Introduced deciduous shrub to 4 m high, sometimes floating freely on the water surface. Root and stem fragments can break off and take root again downstream. Suckers from the roots. Stems cylindrical, hairy when young, dark green to brownish, much branched. Leaves alternating up the stems, rarely opposite each other, 4–12 cm long, 3–30 mm wide, hairy, with prominent veins, tips pointed. Flowers with 4-6 yellow petals, each 10–30 mm long, 10–30 mm wide, and 4-5 green sepals, which remain on the seed cases at the seeding stage, turning reddish as the seed cases begin to mature. Flowers single, lasting only one day. Flowering: spring to autumn. Seed cases reddish or brownish, hairy, four-angled, 10-25 mm long, 6-10 mm wide, containing thousands of seeds. Seeds sticky.
General Biosecurity Duty all NSW. General Biosecurity Duty with additional restrictions in the Central Tablelands, Greater Sydney, and South East areas, NSW
PlantNET description: http://plantnet.rbgsyd.nsw.gov.au/cgi-bin/NSWfl.pl?page=nswfl&lvl=sp&name=Ludwigia~peruviana (accessed 24 January, 2021)
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