Lysimachia nummularia
Common names
Creeping Jenny
Biostatus
Exotic
Category
Vascular
Structural class
Herbs - Dicotyledonous composites
Simplified 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.
Flower colours
Yellow
Detailed description
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.
Distribution
Scattered distribution, recorded from the Waikato, Bay of Plenty and Westland.
Habitat
Damp places such, as river banks and low-lying pastures.
Conservation status
Not applicable
Detailed taxonomy
Family
Ecology
Flowering
November to April
Fruiting
None
Year naturalised
1907
Origin
Europe
Reason for introduction
Ornamental plant
Control techniques
Not controlled in New Zealand.
Life cycle and dispersal
Apparently no seed set in New Zealand, dispersal by stem fragments spread by water movement, deliberate planting or garden discards.
Other information
Etymology
nummularia: Coin bearer
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
Referencing and citations
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.
Attribution
Factsheet prepared by Paul Champion and Deborah Hofstra (NIWA). Features description from Webb et al. (1988).
Some of this factsheet information is derived from Flora of New Zealand Online and is used under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 New Zealand licence.