Lythrum virgatumL.

European wand loosestrife

WFO wfo-0000366909 Accepted WFO 2026-06 8 photographs CC0 / CC BY

Plate 1 figs. a–h · 8 separate observations

Lythrum virgatum, photographed by Aleksei Baushev
fig. a Aleksei Baushev, CC BY 4.0 / 2021-08-28 / obs. 153985303
Lythrum virgatum, photographed by Marina Potapova
fig. b Marina Potapova, CC0 1.0 / obs. 148251488
Lythrum virgatum, photographed by Yurii Basov
fig. c Yurii Basov, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 95200424
Lythrum virgatum, photographed by Вячеслав Юсупов
fig. d Вячеслав Юсупов, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 87769151
Lythrum virgatum, photographed by Вячеслав Юсупов
fig. e Вячеслав Юсупов, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 84586614
Lythrum virgatum, photographed by Вячеслав Юсупов
fig. f Вячеслав Юсупов, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 47464305
Lythrum virgatum, photographed by Galyna Mykytynets
fig. g Galyna Mykytynets, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 178236911
Lythrum virgatum, photographed by Алина Урусова
fig. h Алина Урусова, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 62154577

Every figure is a research-grade observation under CC0, CC BY or CC BY-SA, rehosted with the photographer’s name, the licence and the observation it came from. Photographs under a NonCommercial licence are excluded from this site and are never stored, which costs us a great many pictures and is not negotiable.

Native range 27 botanical countries

Regions where Lythrum virgatum is native: Altay, China North-Central, Kazakhstan, Kirgizstan, Krasnoyarsk, Mongolia, North Caucasus, Türkiye, Tuva, West Siberia, Xinjiang, Albania, Austria, Belarus, Bulgaria, Central European Russia, Czechia-Slovakia, East European Russia, Greece, Hungary, Italy, Krym, NW. Balkan Pen., Romania, South European Russia, Türkiye-in-Europe, Ukraine AltayChina North-CentralKazakhstanKirgizstanKrasnoyarskMongoliaNorth CaucasusTürkiyeTuvaWest SiberiaXinjiangAlbaniaAustriaBelarusBulgariaCentral European RussiaCzechia-SlovakiaEast European RussiaGreeceHungaryItalyKrymNW. Balkan Pen.RomaniaSouth European RussiaTürkiye-in-EuropeUkraine
Native distribution of Lythrum virgatum, after Kew’s World Checklist of Vascular Plants. Introduced, extinct and doubtful records are excluded, so this is where the plant is from, not everywhere it now grows.
RegionTDWG codeContinent
Albania ALB EUROPE
Austria AUT
Belarus BLR
Bulgaria BUL
Central European Russia RUC
Czechia-Slovakia CZE
East European Russia RUE
Greece GRC
Hungary HUN
Italy ITA
Krym KRY
NW. Balkan Pen. YUG
Romania ROM
South European Russia RUS
Türkiye-in-Europe TUE
Ukraine UKR
Altay ALT ASIA-TEMPERATE
China North-Central CHN
Kazakhstan KAZ
Kirgizstan KGZ
Krasnoyarsk KRA
Mongolia MON
North Caucasus NCS
Türkiye TUR
Tuva TVA
West Siberia WSB
Xinjiang CHX

Region boundaries approximated from Natural Earth (public domain) and mapped to TDWG World Geographical Scheme for Recording Plant Distributions (WGSRPD) level-3 botanical countries (Brummitt 2001). Indicative, not the official WGSRPD geometry.

Flowering 108 in flower of 119 examined

Peak flowering in Aug. Each bar is the share of Lythrum virgatum observations in which someone actually recorded the reproductive state and found the plant in flower, not the raw number of flowering records. That distinction matters: people observe plants far more in spring than in winter, so a bare count of flowering records partly measures when people go outside. Dividing by the number examined removes that. 108 of 119 examined observations were in flower, every one of them research grade. The whisker on each bar is a 95% Wilson interval. 8 months have fewer than 5 examined observations, so no proportion is drawn for them. This is still a global aggregate and not a forecast for your garden: the same species flowers on different dates in different hemispheres. Where a species has fewer than 30 flowering records we do not draw this chart at all. Computed from 10.15468/dl.cgje2x.

Also published as 9 synonyms

A synonym is not an error. It is a record of botanists disagreeing, in print, about where this plant belongs. Each of these was somebody’s considered answer.

  • Hexostemon virgatus (L.) Raf.
  • Lythrum acuminatum Willd.
  • Lythrum austriacum Jacq.
  • Lythrum divaricatum Schur
  • Lythrum elegans Schur
  • Lythrum lusitanicum Mill.
  • Lythrum roseum-superbum Abbey
  • Pythagorea virgata (L.) Raf.
  • Salicaria virgata (L.) Moench

Sourcesevery claim on this page

  1. World Flora Online Plant List. accepted name, authority, classification. CC0. Retrieved 2026-07-12.
  2. iNaturalist. photographs and flowering annotations, CC0 / CC BY / CC BY-SA only. per photograph. Retrieved 2026-06-27.
  3. Wikidata. common name (P1843), joined on the World Flora Online identifier (P7715). CC0. Retrieved 2026-07-13.
  4. Kew, World Checklist of Vascular Plants (WCVP v16). native distribution by TDWG level-3 botanical country, and life form. CC BY 3.0. Retrieved 2026-06-04.

We publish what we can source and we say so when we cannot. This page has no care advice and no toxicity claim, because we do not yet have those from a source we can cite.