American Lopseed (TVA, White's Creek Small Wild Area, Plants)

American Lopseed

Phryma leptostachya

Summary ⁸

Phryma leptostachya, or lopseed, is a perennial herb. The genus is native to eastern North America (roughly, everywhere east of the Rocky Mountains) and Asia (Japan, Nepal, India and West Pakistan), and consists of either one or two species, depending on whether the American and Asian species are considered separate or not.

Description ⁹

This native perennial plant is about 1½3' tall. It is more or less erect and either sparingly branched or unbranched. The stems are light green to dark purple, angular-terete, and slightly pubescent. Pairs of opposite leaves occur along each stem. The leaf blades are up to 5" long and 2½" across; they are dull green, hairless, ovate in shape, and crenate-dentate along their margins. The lower leaves have slender petioles up to one-half the length of their blades, while the upper leaves have much shorter petioles. The upper stems terminate in slender spike-like racemes of flowers up to 1' long. In addition, secondary racemes are often produced from the uppermost pairs of leaves. The flowers are arranged in opposite pairs along the upper one-half or upper one-third of each raceme. The central stalk of the raceme is usually dark purple. Each flower is up to 1/3" (8 mm.) in length; it consists of a tubular-ovoid calyx and a slender corolla that is pale purplish white and divides into two lips. The small upper lip has a rounded edge, which is slightly indented in the middle; the long lower lip divides into 3 lobes, functioning as a landing pad for visiting insects. Within the corolla, there is a single style and 4 stamens. The small calyx is light green and hairless; it has 3 teeth that are long, slender, and purple along its upper/outer side, while the opposite side of the calyx has a pair of much smaller teeth. The pedicels of the flowers are very short; at the base of each pedicel, there is a pair of tiny bracts (bracteoles). While individual flowers are blooming, they are held horizontally; shortly afterwards, their corollas fall away and their calyces bend downward to become appressed against the stalk of their racemes. The blooming period occurs during the summer and lasts 1-2 months. Only a few flowers are in bloom at the same time. Each flower produces a single seed that develops within the calyx. This native plant reproduces by reseeding itself.

Evolution ¹⁰

Phryma leptostachya is one species with a well-known classic intercontinental disjunct distribution between eastern Asia (EA) and eastern North America (ENA). Phylogenetic analysis of nuclear ribosomal ITS and chloroplast rps16 and trnL-F sequences revealed two highly distinct clades corresponding to EA and ENA. The divergence time between the intercontinental populations was estimated to be 3.68 ± 2.25 to 5.23 ± 1.37 million years ago (mya) based on combined chloroplast data using Bayesian and penalized likelihood methods. Phylogeographic and dispersal-vicariance (DIVA) analysis suggest a North American origin of Phryma leptostachya and its migration into Easter Asia via the Bering land bridge (Nei et al., 2006).

Faunal associations ¹¹

Small bees occasionally visit the flowers for nectar. Robertson (1928) observed only two bees, Ceratina dupla and Augochlorella striata, as floral visitors of Lopseed. The former species is a Little Carpenter bee, while the latter species is a Green Metallic bee. Other records of floral-faunal relationships are sparse. A polyphagous insect, Proxys punctulatus (Black Stink Bug), sucks juices from the foliage of Lopseed (and many other plants). White-Tailed Deer reportedly dislike this plant as a food source and don't graze on the foliage.

Flower visiting insects of lopseed in illinois ¹²

Phryma leptostachya (Lopseed)
(Bees suck nectar; observations are from Robertson)

Bees (long-tongued)
Anthophoridae (Ceratinini): Ceratina dupla dupla

Bees (short-tongued)
Halictidae (Halictinae): Augochlorella striata

Sources and Credits

(c) Patrick Coin, some rights reserved (CC BY-NC-SA), http://www.flickr.com/photos/42264328@N00/998668110
(c) cotinis, some rights reserved (CC BY-NC-SA), https://www.flickr.com/photos/pcoin/997726341/
(c) cotinis, some rights reserved (CC BY-NC-SA), https://www.flickr.com/photos/pcoin/997726321/
(c) cotinis, some rights reserved (CC BY-NC-SA), https://www.flickr.com/photos/pcoin/997726551/
(c) harum.koh, some rights reserved (CC BY-SA), uploaded by harum.koh, https://www.flickr.com/photos/harumkoh/15484084011/
(c) Eli Dickerson, some rights reserved (CC BY-NC), uploaded by Eli Dickerson
(c) bendingtree, some rights reserved (CC BY-NC), uploaded by bendingtree
Adapted by Jonathan (JC) Carpenter from a work by (c) Wikipedia, some rights reserved (CC BY-SA), http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phryma_leptostachya
(c) John Hilty, some rights reserved (CC BY-NC), http://eol.org/data_objects/29445523
(c) Wen, Jun, some rights reserved (CC BY-NC), http://eol.org/data_objects/16147279
(c) John Hilty, some rights reserved (CC BY-NC), http://eol.org/data_objects/29445527
(c) John Hilty, some rights reserved (CC BY-NC), http://eol.org/data_objects/31872838

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