Species

Lycopus europaeus

Common Name(s)

gypsywort

Authority

Lycopus europaeus L.

Family

Lamiaceae

Brief Description

Mint-like plant, up to 1 m tall, with square stems, toothed paired leaves and tiny white or pale mauve flowers produced in groups above each pair of leaves in the upper stem, but no minty smell when crushed.

Flora Category

Vascular - Exotic

NVS Species Code

LYCEUR

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.

Structural Class

Dicotyledonous Herbs other than Composites

Distribution

Abundant in the Waikato and Rotorua Lakes, few sites in Northland, Auckland and in Westland near Haast.

Habitat

Lake and river margins, drains and swamps, often growing at the base of raupo and tall sedges.

Features

Perennial herb. Stem hairy, to c. 1 m tall. Lvs shortly petiolate or sessile. Lamina 3-8.5 × 1-3 cm, ovate-lanceolate to elliptic, deeply crenate-serrate, hairy at first, becoming glabrous or nearly so; basal area with narrow-oblong or linear-oblong lobes extending to midrib; apex ± acuminate. Upper lvs and bracts smaller, without basal lobes, hairy, especially on veins below. Calyx c. 3 mm long, hairy; teeth > tube, lanceolate-acuminate. Corolla 3.5-4 mm long, white with purple spots on lower lip and in throat. Nutlets 1.2-1.3 mm long, broad-obovoid, glandular and swollen on anterior face, with margin clearly delimited.

Similar Taxa

Superficially similar to mints (Mentha spp.) but lacking the characteristic smell of those plants.

Flowering

Summer and autumn

Flower Colours

Purple,Red / Pink,White

Fruiting

Summer and autumn

Year Naturalised

1940

Origin

Europe, cold temperate Asia

Reason for Introduction

Possibly as a herbal plant

Control Techniques

Rarely controlled, but can be controlled manually, mechanically or herbicidally depending on situation.

Life Cycle and Dispersal

Seed dispersed by water, footwear or contaminated machinery.

Attribution

Factsheet prepared by Paul Champion and Deborah Hofstra (NIWA). Features description from Webb et al., (1988).

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.

Johnson PN, Brooke PA (1989).  Wetland plants in New Zealand.   DSIR Field Guide, DSIR Publishing, Wellington. 319pp.

Champion et al (2012). Freshwater Pests of New Zealand.  NIWA publication. http://www.niwa.co.nz/freshwater-and-estuaries/management-tools/identification-guides-and-fact-sheets/freshwater-pest-species

This page last updated on 21 Oct 2015