Ludwigia (plant)

Ludwigia (primrose-willow, water-purslane, or water-primrose) is a genus of about 82 species of aquatic plants native to Central and South America[1] with a cosmopolitan but mainly tropical distribution.

Ludwigia
Scientific classification e
Kingdom: Plantae
Clade: Tracheophytes
Clade: Angiosperms
Clade: Eudicots
Clade: Rosids
Order: Myrtales
Family: Onagraceae
Subfamily: Ludwigioideae
Genus: Ludwigia
L.
Species
See text

Currently (2023), there is much debate among botanists and plant taxonomists as to the classification of many Ludwigia species. Botanists from the US Department of Agriculture are currently doing genetic analyses on plants from the Western US and South America to better classify members of this genus.

The genus was named by Carl Linnaeus after Christian Gottlieb Ludwig (1709-1773), a German botanist, who was apparently not amused by this honour.[2]

Fossil record

A large number of fossil seeds of †Ludwigia collinsoniae and †L. corneri have been described from middle Miocene strata of the Fasterholt area near Silkeborg in Central Jutland, Denmark.[3]

Selected species

Listed from the NCBI database:[4]

References
  1. "Ludwigia (Ludwigia peruviana)". NSW Department of Primary Industries. Retrieved 2020-02-05. Native to South America, from Mexico through to Chile.
  2. Vol. II. - Caclyciflorae. Vol. 2. Rivington. 1832. p. 696.
  3. Angiosperm Fruits and Seeds from the Middle Miocene of Jutland (Denmark) by Else Marie Friis, The Royal Danish Academy of Sciences and Letters 24:3, 1985
  4. NCBI taxonomy- Reviewed 2017-11-25
  • Wagner, W. L., Hoch, P. C., & Raven, P. H. (2007). Revised classification of the Onagraceae. Systematic Botany Monographs, 83.
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