Common name: Willow Primrose, False primrose, Primrose willow, Swamp primrose, Water primrose • Hindi: बन लौंग Ban long • Marathi: पाण लवंग Pan lavang • Tamil: Kattukkirampu • Malayalam: Kattukarayampu • Telugu: Nirubaccala • Kannada: Kauakula • Sanskrit: भूल वंग Bhu lavangah
Botanical name: Ludwigia octovalvis Family: Onagraceae (Evening primrose family)
Willow Primrose is an erect, stout, well-branched, robust herb of damp or
flooded areas, may be woody at the base and shrubby at times, to 2 m,
annual or perennial, with long stiff hairs sometimes appressed and oriented
in one direction. Stems may be red-brown. Leaves alternate, light green,
may turn red upon aging, narrowly lanceolate to ovate, up to 15 cm long,
4-40 mm wide, densely velvety on both sides. Flowers solitary in axils of
leaves and at terminals. Four pale to bright yellow flowers, 1-2 cm long
and 4-17 mm wide, broadly ovate and may be notched at apex. Fruit is a
thin-walled, 4-angled, narrowly cylindrical, 8-ribbed capsule, 3-5 cm long,
2-8 mm in diameter. That is the source of its species name
octovalvis, which means eight ribbed.
| Photographed in Alibag, Maharashtra. |
Identification credit: Pravin Kawale
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