ReturnReturn |
Other Names: bugle weed, American bugle weed, cut-leaved water horehoundScientific Name: Lycopus uniflorus Michx., Lycopus americanus Muhl.
Plant Family: Labiatae
Botanical Description: These two herbaceous plants are very similar and difficult to distinguish.Stems: rather slender and hairy, sparingly branched, 0.5 - 2 feet tall, sharply angled and square in cross section, tuberous at the base
Leaves: opposite, lance-shaped, smell minty when crushed, soft and downy, lower leaves gently lobed, upper leaves sharply serrated
Roots: Lycopus uniflorus roots thicken into a tuber just under the soil surface; L. americanus roots are not tuberous but may have a few short stolens from the base of the stem.
Flowers: in tiny clusters on stems near leaf axils, may be whitish, bloom July - September
Seeds: Seed has a grainy surface, is triangular in outline with one flattened face and one convex face, surrounded by thin, wide wings; light brown, tiny.
Seedling: Seed leaves are tiny and smooth. Suubsequent leaves are opposite, thin, delicate and pale at first but deeper green later. Leaves are covered with soft down, and drooping with wavy edges. Stem is covered with fine hairs and square in cross section.
Reproduction: perennialPropagation: Often spread by stolons (runners) or rhizomes.
Dispersal:
State: Common throughout Wisconsin.National: Found throughout most of the continental United States.
Origin:
Not strongly competitive, but often invades thin vines and new cranberry plantings. Most common in moist but well-drained soils. Often grows in wetlands adjacent to cranberry beds.
While scouting a cranberry bed for disease and insect pests, identify weed populations as they arise. Note the specie(s) of weed present as well as the population level relative to field area. Example: 10% water horehound, 20% boneset and joe-pye weed mix.
Dana, M. 1987. Cranberry Weeds in Wisconsin. Department of Horticulture, University of Wisconsin-Madison. Madison, Wisconsin. p. 22.
Delorit, R. J. 1970. Illustrated Taxonomy Manuual of Weed Seeds. Agronomy Publications, Wisconsin State University-River Falls. River Falls, Wisconsin. p. 148.
Kummer, A. P. 1951. Weed Seedlings. The University of Chicago Press, Chicago, U.S.A. p. 253.
Kummer, L. D., T. G. Dittl, and T. D. Planer. 1993. Wisconsin Cranberry Weeds. Wisconsin Cranberry Board, Wisconsin Rapids, Wisconsin. p. 15.
Return