NameThatPlant.net: Rotala ramosior

Spermatophytes (seed plants): Angiosperms (flowering plants): Eudicots: Core Eudicots: Rosids: Malvids: Myrtales

WEAKLEY'S FLORA OF THE SOUTHEASTERN US (4/14/23):
Rotala ramosior FAMILY Lythraceae Go to FSUS key

Dig deeper at SERNEC, a consortium of southeastern herbaria.

Read more about Toothcup at Vascular Plants of North Carolina.

SYNONYMOUS WITH PLANTS NATIONAL DATABASE:
Rotala ramosior FAMILY Lythraceae

SYNONYMOUS WITH Flora of North America north of Mexico, vol. 10 (2021)

Rotala ramosior

SYNONYMOUS WITH Floristic Synthesis of North America. BONAP (Kartesz, 2021)

Rotala ramosior

SYNONYMOUS WITH VASCULAR FLORA OF THE CAROLINAS (Radford, Ahles, & Bell, 1968) 135-01-001:

Rotala ramosior FAMILY Lythraceae

SYNONYMOUS WITH Manual of the Southeastern Flora (Small, 1933, 1938)

Rotala ramosior

COMMON NAME:
Toothcup, Lowland Rotala

To see larger pictures, click or hover over the thumbnails.

image of Rotala ramosior, Toothcup, Lowland Rotala

USDA-NRCS PLANTS Database / Britton, N.L., and A. Brown. 1913 pnd_rora_001_lvd

USDA-NRCS PLANTS Database / USDA Wetland flora: Field office illustrated guide pnd_rora_006_lvd

Richard and Teresa Ware rtw_rotala_ramosior

August

Leaves linear to narrowly lanceolate, short-tapered to both ends, sessile, per Wildflowers of the Sandhills Region (Sorrie, 2011).

Richard and Teresa Ware rtw_rotala_ramosiorb

August

Petals absent or, if present, purplish-white and soon dropped, per Wildflowers of the Sandhills Region (Sorrie, 2011).

WEAKLEY'S FLORA OF THE SOUTHEASTERN US (4/14/23):
Rotala ramosior FAMILY Lythraceae

SYNONYMOUS WITH PLANTS NATIONAL DATABASE:
Rotala ramosior FAMILY Lythraceae

SYNONYMOUS WITH Flora of North America north of Mexico, vol. 10
Rotala ramosior

SYNONYMOUS WITH Floristic Synthesis of North America. BONAP (Kartesz, 2021)
Rotala ramosior

SYNONYMOUS WITH VASCULAR FLORA OF THE CAROLINAS (Radford, Ahles, & Bell, 1968) 135-01-001:
Rotala ramosior FAMILY Lythraceae

SYNONYMOUS WITH Manual of the Southeastern Flora (Small, 1933, 1938)
Rotala ramosior

3745

Forb
Annual

Habitat: marshes, ditches, exposed drawdown muds and silts, per Weakley's Flora

Native to the Carolinas & Georgia

Common (uncommon in Mountains of GA & NC)

map
CLICK HERE to see a map, notes, and images from Weakley's Flora of the Southeastern US.

Click here to see a map showing all occurrences known to SERNEC, a consortium of southeastern herbaria. (Zoom in to see more detail.)

LEAVES:
Simple
Opposite
Leaves sessile
Margins entire

FLOWER:
Summer/Fall
White or purplish-white
4(-6) sepals
4 petals or petals absent
4 stamens
Superior ovary
Bisexual

Flowers in leaf axils, usually solitary

FRUIT:
Summer/Fall
Yellow-gold, golden-brown
Capsule

TO LEARN MORE about this plant, look it up in a good book!

"Invasive exotics share several strong traits: fit well within the environment, grow rapidly, mature to produce flowers and seed at an early age, produce great quantities of seed, effectively disperse their seed (via birds, etc.), rampantly spread vegetatively, have no major pest of disease problems. Horticulturally, some of these characteristics are considered quite desirable. Thus there is the absurd irony of various governmental and environmental groups trying hard to control and eradicate in the wild some of the very same species being sold to gardeners all over the US...." — Margie Hunter, Gardening with the Native Plants of Tennessee

If a search such as "Carex leptalea var. leptalea" doesn't deliver the results you want, try "Carex leptalea".
Or, to minimize chances of a misspelling, try just "Carex le".

Less is more: If "pencil flower" doesn't deliver the results you want, try "pencil".