Steironema hybridum Berkeley Belle

(aka: Lysimachia hybrida) Steironema hybridum is an oddly named (not a hybrid), poorly-known, and rather rare, East Coast native species, that deserves a place in home gardens. In the wild, lowland loosestrife occurs in wetland habitats and moist woodlands, ranging from Pennsylvania to Oklahoma, growing from the coast to the mountains. For us, it has performed best with a couple of hours of sun, in average to moist soil. The 2' tall stalks on this deciduous clumping perennial, are clothed with whorled foliage that superficially resembles Coreopsis major. Our extremely heavy-flowering clone, Steironema 'Berkeley Belle', is grown from cuttings from a population in Berkeley County, South Carolina. For us, the clusters of yellow flowers emerge from the leaf axils from July through September.