''Lycopus europaeus'', common names gypsywort, gipsywort, bugleweed, European bugleweed and water horehound, is a

perennial plant In horticulture, the term perennial (''wikt:per-#Prefix, per-'' + ''wikt:-ennial#Suffix, -ennial'', "through the year") is used to differentiate a plant from shorter-lived annual plant, annuals and biennial plant, biennials. It has thus been d ...

in the genus ''

Lycopus ''Lycopus'' is a genus of herbaceous plants in the family Lamiaceae. The many species are known as water horehound, gypsywort, and bugleweed and are native to Europe, Asia, Australia, and North America. The species are most often found in wetlan ...

'', native to Europe and Asia, and naturalized elsewhere. Another species, '' Lycopus americanus'' has also been erroneously called ''L. europaeus''. Lycopus europaeus Prague 2012 3

Description

Gypsywort is a rather straggly perennial plant with slender underground runners and grows to a height of about . The stalkless or short-stalked leaves are in opposite pairs. The leaf blades are hairy, narrowly lanceolate-ovate, sometimes pinnately-lobed, and with large teeth on the margin. The inflorescence forms a terminal spike and is composed of dense whorls of white or pale pink flowers. The calyx has five lobes and the corolla forms a two-lipped flower about long with a fused tube. The upper lip of each flower is slightly convex with a notched tip and the lower lip is three-lobed, the central lobe being the largest and bearing a red "nectar mark" to attract pollinating insects. There are two stamens, the

gynoecium Gynoecium (; ; : gynoecia) is most commonly used as a collective term for the parts of a flower that produce ovules and ultimately develop into the fruit and seeds. The gynoecium is the innermost whorl (botany), whorl of a flower; it consists ...

has two fused carpels and the fruit is a four-chambered

schizocarp A schizocarp is a dry fruit that, when mature, splits up into mericarps. There are different definitions: * Any Dry fruits, dry fruit composed of multiple carpels that separate. : Under this definition the mericarps can contain one or more ...

. The flowers are visited by many types of insects, and can be characterized by a generalized

pollination syndrome Pollination syndromes are suites of flower traits that have evolved in response to natural selection imposed by different Pollination, pollen vectors, which can be abiotic (wind and water) or biotic, such as birds, bees, flies, and so forth thro ...

Habitat

Gypsywort grows primarily in

wetland A wetland is a distinct semi-aquatic ecosystem whose groundcovers are flooded or saturated in water, either permanently, for years or decades, or only seasonally. Flooding results in oxygen-poor ( anoxic) processes taking place, especially ...

areas. It grows along the borders of lakes, ponds and streams as well as in canals and marshes. Its carpels float which may aid dispersal of the plant and its

rhizome In botany and dendrology, a rhizome ( ) is a modified subterranean plant stem that sends out roots and Shoot (botany), shoots from its Node (botany), nodes. Rhizomes are also called creeping rootstalks or just rootstalks. Rhizomes develop from ...

ous roots also allow the plant to spread. It is in flower from June to September, and produces seeds from August to October.

Etymology and folklore

It is reputed to have medicinal qualitiesPlants for a Future Database of Edible and Medicinal Plants
/ref>
/ref> and has been used by various peoples as a dye, astringent, cosmetic, douche and narcotic. Several research studies have been undertaken on the properties of this plant.

Rembert Dodoens Rembert Dodoens (born Rembert van Joenckema, 29 June 1517 – 10 March 1585) was a Flemish people, Flemish physician and botanist, also known under his Latinization (literature), Latinized name Rembertus Dodonaeus. He has been called the father o ...

wrote of the names of the plant in the 1578 English translation of his original book published in 1563, as the fourth among the group of horehounds “…: in Brabant water Andoren, and of some Egyptenaers cruyt, that is to say, the Egyptians herbe, bycause of the Rogues and runnegates which call themselves Egyptians, do colour themselves blacke with this herbe.” The Brabant original seems to suggest it was used by itinerant non-Roma who were pretending to be

Romani people {{Infobox ethnic group , group = Romani people , image = , image_caption = , flag = Roma flag.svg , flag_caption = Romani flag created in 1933 and accepted at the 1971 World Romani Congress , po ...

by darkening their skin. He also wrote that water horehound was not used in medicine. Through time it often came to be said that name gypsywort comes from the belief that Romani people would stain their skin with the juice of the plant, although Howard (1987) states that they used it to dye their linen.Howard, Michael. ''Traditional Folk Remedies'' (Century, 1987) p.151

References

External links

United States Dept. of Agriculture Plants DatabaseList of articles from the National Library of Medicine and the National Institutes of HealthFlora of ChinaPlants for a Future Database of Edible and Medicinal Plants
{{Taxonbar, from=Q158390 europaeus Flora of Asia Flora of Europe Flora of Lebanon Medicinal plants Plants described in 1753 Taxa named by Carl Linnaeus