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Webster 1913 Edition

Loosestrife

Loose′strifeˊ

(loōs′strīfˊ)
,
Noun.
(Bot.)
(a)
The name of several species of plants of the genus
Lysimachia
, having small star-shaped flowers, usually of a yellow color.
(b)
Any species of the genus
Lythrum
, having purple, or, in some species, crimson flowers.
Gray.
False loosestrife
,
a plant of the genus
Ludwigia
, which includes several species, most of which are found in the United States.
–
Tufted loosestrife
,
the plant
Lysimachia thyrsiflora
, found in the northern parts of the United States and in Europe.
Gray.

Webster 1828 Edition

Loosestrife

LOOSESTRIFE

,
Noun.
loos'strife. In botany, the name of several species of plants, of the genera Lysimachia, Epilobium, Lythrum, and Gaura.

Definition 2024

loosestrife

loosestrife

English

purple loosestrife (Lythrum salicaria)
gooseneck loosestrife (Lysimachia clethroides)

Noun

loosestrife ‎(plural loosestrifes)

  1. Any of certain flowering plants of the genera Lythrum and Lysimachia, which are not closely related.
    • 1919, Ronald Firbank, Valmouth, Duckworth, hardback edition, page 91,
      He had a suit of summer mufti, and a broad-brimmed blue beaver hat looped with leaves broken from the hedgerows in the lanes, and a Leander scarf tucked full of flowers: loosestrife, meadowrue, orchis, ragged-robin.
    • 2008, Allan M. Armitage, Herbaceous Perennial Plants, 3rd Edition, page 672,
      Most loosestrifes thrive in the northern part of the United States and Canada but only a few make good garden plants for the South.
    • 2013, Théodore de Saussure, Jane F. Hill (translator), Chemical Research on Plant Growth, [Recherches chimiques sur la Végétation], page 22,
      I grew some peas, loosestrifes, and fleabanes [“inules”] in profound darkness, beneath two identical receptacles filled with atmospheric air.

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