Fireweed, Epilobium angustifolium

Abstract

The fire-weed glows in the centre of the drive ways.Time (weekly ed.) Rudyard Kipling, 1892Fireweed is in the evening primrose family, Onagraceae, which includes 17 genera (Brummitt (1992). The genus Epilobium encompasses 200 especially western North America species of annuals, biennials, and herbaceous and semievergreen subshrubs. Epilobium is widely distributed in the temperate regions on waste and disturbed ground, stony slopes, river gravels, and subalpine screes and meadows. While some species are cultivated for their showy flowers, windborne seeds and spreading rhizomes make many others invasive (Brickhill and Zuh 1997).