Epilobium aff. palustre L. (Finland, Äänekoski, Koivisto, 1988) – Image: Harri Harmaja (scanned from dried specimen). – This plant was found in a meso-eutrophic spring-fed mire. It is peculiar in that, instead of normal branches, the nodes in the upper part of the plant produce numerous proliferations, or small vegetative shoots. These are all alike, having narrow leaves, and probably function as gemmae. As often with this kind "viviparous" plants, the present ones are sterile. In the next year, I found rather similar plants in another locality (Karkkila, Haavisto, 1989). However, the innovations are taller in the latter plants that grew in an eutrophic mire by a spring-fed brook. In both collections, the hairiness of the stem and the cauline leaves are as generally in E. palustre. Either a most unusual morph of E. palustre is concerned or the collections represent a taxon of its own. E. gemmascens C.A.Mey. of the mountains of Balkan also produce some kind of gemmae in the leaf axils, but that species is different from the Finnish plant.
Created August 30, 2004.