A member of the Loosestrife family, Purple Loosestrife is a perennial wildflower that invades and overtakes natural and disturbed wetlands and marshes with its aggressive reproduction abilities. Each plant can produce over one million seeds, but it also propagates through underground stems and resprouts easily when cut. Seedlings will grow in a dense mat in the area surrounding its parent plant, reducing native plants and habitats for wildlife.

This wildflower grows an upright stem with a spike of many flowers. Each purplish-pink flower, only 1 to 2 cm wide, has 4-6 petals and many stamen. Its lance-shaped leaves alternate on the erect stem that grows to heights of 60-120 cm. Mature plants can have as many as 30 to 50 stems. In the Algonquin Highlands, you might see the Purple Loosestrife from June to September.

Introduced from Europe in the early 1800’s, this plant was grown for ornamental and medicinal uses.