Water primrose     Ludwigia grandiflora

Photo: GBNNSS

• Appearance: Creeping perennial freshwater plant, long willow-like oval leaves, large bright yellow primrose-like flower. Can produce huge numbers of seeds every year.
• Growth: Grows and spreads rampantly, spread through small fragments or seeds.
• Impact: Negative impact on aquatic ecosystems, outcompetes native species, dominating areas by covering ponds and shading out other plants including nationally rare species. Can affect water quality. Dense growth can clog waterways, impact navigation and recreation and contribute to flooding.
• Pathway: May have escaped or been deliberately released into the wild.
• Legal status: Species of special concern listed under the retained EU Regulation 1143/2014 and the Invasive Alien Species (Enforcement & Permitting) Order 2019.

• Unless certain exemptions apply you must not:
  • keep them (unless already growing on your land or kept in a contained holding)
  • sell them to other people
  • use them or exchange them for goods
  • grow, cultivate or permit this plant to reproduce
  • release them into the environment
  • import them into the UK
  • transport them within the UK
  • export them to other countries

• What to do if you see Water primrose for sale or other offences being committed: Make a report by following the guidance here.

• What to do if you see this plant in the wild: This is an alert species, record it with a photograph (where possible).

• Make sure you don’t spread this plant: Check Clean Dry your boots and equipment and Be Plant Wise in your garden.

• Links to more information: Species alerts Water primrose » NNSS (nonnativespecies.org) and ID sheet.