Lysimachia nummularia
Common name
Creeping Jenny
Family
Primulaceae
Flora category
Vascular – Exotic
Structural class
Herbs - Dicotyledonous composites
NVS code
The National Vegetation Survey (NVS) Databank is a physical archive and electronic databank containing records of over 94,000 vegetation survey plots - including data from over 19,000 permanent plots. NVS maintains a standard set of species code abbreviations that correspond to standard scientific plant names from the Ngä Tipu o Aotearoa - New Zealand Plants database.
LYSNUM
Conservation status
Not applicable
Brief description
Creeping herb, with crowded paired round leaves along horizontal creeping stems, rooting where leaf bearing stems touch the soil, flowers yellow, up to 2.5 cm across.
Distribution
Scattered distribution, recorded from the Waikato, Bay of Plenty and Westland.
Habitat
Damp places such, as river banks and low-lying pastures.
Features
Glabrous, evergreen herb with creeping aerial stems, rooting at nodes. Lvs opposite, shortly petiolate. Lamina 1-2.5 × 1-2.5 cm, orbicular to subreniform, glandular-punctate, entire; base rounded to subcordate; apex rounded or shallowly emarginate. Fls solitary in the axils; bracts 0. Pedicels 1.5-2 cm long, glabrous. Calyx 7-8 mm long, glandular-punctate; lobes ovate or triangular-ovate, cordate at base, short-acuminate at apex. Corolla limb 2-2.5 cm diam., yellow, minutely glandular-ciliate; lobes c. 1.5 cm long, ± obovate, rounded. Stamens 4-5 mm long; filaments united at base, glandular-scaly. Style almost = or slightly > stamens, scarcely glandular-scaly. Capsule not seen.
Similar taxa
No other creeping, opposite orbicular leaved and yellow flowered wetland plant.
Flowering
November to April
Flower colours
Yellow
Fruiting
None
Life cycle
Apparently no seed set in New Zealand, dispersal by stem fragments spread by water movement, deliberate planting or garden discards.
Year naturalised
1907
Origin
Europe
Reason for introduction
Ornamental plant
Control techniques
Not controlled in New Zealand.
Etymology
nummularia: Coin bearer
Attribution
Factsheet prepared by Paul Champion and Deborah Hofstra (NIWA). Features description from Webb et al. (1988).
References and further reading
Webb, C.J.; Sykes, W.R.; Garnock-Jones, P.J. (1988). Flora of New Zealand Volume 4: Naturalised pteridophytes, gymnosperms, dicotyledons. Botany Division, DSIR, Christchurch.
Clapham, A.R.; Tutin, T.G.; Warburg, E.F. (1962). Flora of the British Isles. Cambridge University Press, Second Edition. 1269pp.