Lindera

Last updated

Contents

Lindera
Lindera melissifolia.jpg
Lindera melissifolia
Scientific classification OOjs UI icon edit-ltr.svg
Kingdom: Plantae
Clade: Tracheophytes
Clade: Angiosperms
Clade: Magnoliids
Order: Laurales
Family: Lauraceae
Genus: Lindera
Thunb.
Species

See text

Synonyms
Dried fruits of Lindera neesiana used as spice
(coll.MHNT) Lindera neesiana Dried fruit Nepal.jpg
Dried fruits of Lindera neesiana used as spice
(coll.MHNT)

Lindera is a genus of about 80–100 [1] species of flowering plants in the family Lauraceae, mostly native to eastern Asia but with three species in eastern North America. [1] [2] The species are shrubs and small trees; [2] common names include spicewood, spicebush, and Benjamin bush.

Name

The Latin name Lindera commemorates the Swedish doctor Johan Linder (1676–1724). [3]

Description

Lindera umbellata Lindera umbellata,Hong Xie surukuromozi(Hei Wen Zi )B221157.JPG
Lindera umbellata

Lindera are evergreen or deciduous trees or shrubs. [2] The leaves are alternate, entire or three-lobed, and strongly spicy-aromatic. Lindera are dioecious, with male and female flowers on separate trees. The inflorescences are composed of 3 to 15 small flowers existing as pseudo-umbels. They are sessile or on short shoots. The flowers are from greenish to white, greenish-yellow, or yellowish, with six tepals arranged in a star shape. [2] The male flowers have 9 to 15 fertile stamens; the innermost circle of stamens can be found at the base of the stamen glands. Usually the stamens are longer than the anthers, which in turn consist of two chambers and are directed inwards or sideways. The vestigial ovary is negligible or absent. The base of the flower is small and flat. The female flowers have a varying number of staminodes. Pollination is done by bees and other insects. Lindera fruit have a hypocarpium at the base of the fruit, which in some cases forms a cup that encloses the bottom part of the fruit. [2] The fruit is a small red, purple or black drupe containing a single seed, dispersed mostly by birds. Many species reproduce vegetatively by stolons.

Ecology

The genus appears to be able to occupy widely different habitats as long as its requirements for water are met.[ citation needed ] Habitat fragmentation severely affects dioecious[ citation needed ] species like Lindera melissifolia (pondberry), because populations with plants of a single sex can only vegetatively reproduce. With significant habitat loss, plants become ever more isolated, lessening the likelihood that pollinators will travel from male to female plants.

Most are found on the bottoms and edges of shallow seasonal ponds in old dune fields, but in drier areas they occur in low riverine habitat.[ citation needed ] Most Lindera colonies occur in light shade beneath a forest canopy, but a few grow in almost full sunlight.[ citation needed ] In warmer areas they occur in bottomland hardwood forests.[ citation needed ]

The North American species of Lindera are relicts that originally were more common when the climate of North America was more humid, and they are not so widespread geographically as in the past.

The hermit thrush has been identified as a dispersal agent of seeds of L. melissifolia. [4]

Lindera species are used as food plants by the larvae of some Lepidoptera species, including the engrailed and the spicebush swallowtail.

Selected species

Uses

The bark, twigs, and leaves of some species can be used to make tea. The berries have also sometimes been used. The young bark can be chewed to parch thirst. [5]

Lindera umbellata contains linderatin, methyllinderatin and linderachalcone which are structurally related to cannabidiol. [6] [ verification needed ]

Related Research Articles

<i>Ilex opaca</i> Species of holly

Ilex opaca, the American holly, is a species of holly, native to the eastern and south-central United States, from coastal Massachusetts south to central Florida, and west to southeastern Missouri and eastern Texas.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Plant reproductive morphology</span> Parts of plant enabling sexual reproduction

Plant reproductive morphology is the study of the physical form and structure of those parts of plants directly or indirectly concerned with sexual reproduction.

<i>Lindera benzoin</i> Species of shrub

Lindera benzoin is a shrub in the laurel family. It is native to eastern North America, ranging from Maine and New York to Ontario in the north, and to Kansas, Texas, and northern Florida in the center and south. Within its native range it is a relatively common plant where it grows in the understory in moist, rich woods, especially those with exposed limestone.

<i>Salix pentandra</i> Species of flowering plant

Salix pentandra, the bay willow, is a species of willow native to northern Europe and northern Asia. The scientific name refers to the male flowers having five stamens. The English name derives from the resemblance of the leaves to those of the bay laurel; other common names include bay-leaved willow and laurel willow. Its glossy leaves make it more decorative than many other willows, so it is often planted as an ornamental tree.

<i>Salix cinerea</i> Species of willow

Salix cinerea is a species of willow native to Europe and western Asia.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Flower</span> Reproductive structure in flowering plants

A flower, also known as a bloom or blossom, is the reproductive structure found in flowering plants. Flowers consist of a combination of vegetative organs – sepals that enclose and protect the developing flower, petals that attract pollinators, and reproductive organs that produce gametophytes, which in flowering plants produce gametes. The male gametophytes, which produce sperm, are enclosed within pollen grains produced in the anthers. The female gametophytes are contained within the ovules produced in the carpels.

<i>Vaccinium ovatum</i> Berry and plant

Vaccinium ovatum is a North American species of flowering shrub known by the common names evergreen huckleberry, winter huckleberry, cynamoka berry and California huckleberry. Vaccinium ovatum is classified in phylum: Magnoliaphyta, order: Ericales, family: Ericaceae, genus: Vaccinium, and species: ovatum.

<i>Cornus amomum</i> Species of flowering plant

Cornus amomum, the silky dogwood, is a species of dogwood native to the southern Ontario and eastern United States, from Michigan and Vermont south to Alabama and Florida. Other names include red willow, silky cornel, kinnikinnick, and squawbush.

This page provides a glossary of plant morphology. Botanists and other biologists who study plant morphology use a number of different terms to classify and identify plant organs and parts that can be observed using no more than a handheld magnifying lens. This page provides help in understanding the numerous other pages describing plants by their various taxa. The accompanying page—Plant morphology—provides an overview of the science of the external form of plants. There is also an alphabetical list: Glossary of botanical terms. In contrast, this page deals with botanical terms in a systematic manner, with some illustrations, and organized by plant anatomy and function in plant physiology.

<i>Frangula alnus</i> Species of flowering plant in the family Rhamnaceae

Frangula alnus, commonly known as alder buckthorn, glossy buckthorn, or breaking buckthorn, is a tall deciduous shrub in the family Rhamnaceae. Unlike other "buckthorns", alder buckthorn does not have thorns. It is native to Europe, northernmost Africa, and western Asia, from Ireland and Great Britain north to the 68th parallel in Scandinavia, east to central Siberia and Xinjiang in western China, and south to northern Morocco, Turkey, and the Alborz in Iran and the Caucasus Mountains; in the northwest of its range, it is rare and scattered. It is also introduced and naturalised in eastern North America.

<i>Rhus copallinum</i> Species of tree

Rhus copallinum, the winged sumac, shining sumac, dwarf sumac or flameleaf sumac, is a species of flowering plant in the cashew family (Anacardiaceae) that is native to eastern North America. It is a deciduous tree growing to 3.5–5.5 metres (11–18 ft) tall and an equal spread with a rounded crown. A 5-year-old sapling will stand about 2.5 metres (8.2 ft).

<i>Sapria himalayana</i> Species of flowering plant

Sapria himalayana, commonly known as the hermit's spittoon, is a rare holoparasitic flowering plant related to Rafflesia found in the Eastern Himalayas. Sapria himalayana represents the extreme manifestation of the parasitic mode, being completely dependent on its host plant for water, nutrients and products of photosynthesis which it sucks through a specialised root system called haustoria. These haustoria are attached to both the xylem and the phloem of the host plant.

<i>Lindera melissifolia</i> Species of shrub

Lindera melissifolia, common name pondberry or southern spicebush, is a stoloniferous, deciduous, aromatic shrub in the laurel family. This endangered species is native to the southeastern United States, and its demise is associated with habitat loss from extensive drainage of wetlands for agriculture and forestry. Restoration efforts are currently being conducted.

<i>Populus ciliata</i> Species of tree

Populus ciliata, the Himalayan poplar, is a large deciduous tree with tall clean straight trunk and wide rounded crown. The bark of the young trees is smooth greenish-grey and the bark of the old trees is dark brown with vertical cracks. Leaves are broadly ovate with serrulate-crenate and hairy margins. Flowers are drooping raceme catkins appear before or with leaves. Populus ciliata flowers are dioecious, individual flowers are either male or female. Perianth of male flowers is bell-shaped and female flowers are bluntly toothed. Their capsule encloses an average of 100–150 seeds, which are covered by long silky hair.

<i>Adenodaphne</i> Genus of shrubs

Adenodaphne is a genus of shrubs and small trees endemic to New Caledonia belonging to the family Lauraceae. The genus is related to Litsea. They have 12 chromosomes.

Dodecadenia is a botanical genus of flowering plants in the family Lauraceae. It contains a single species, Dodecadenia grandiflora. It is present from central Asia, to Himalayas and India. It is present in tropical and subtropical montane rainforest, laurel forest, in the weed-tree forests in valleys, mixed forests of coniferous and deciduous broad-leaved trees, Tsuga forests; 2,000–2,600 metres (6,600–8,500 ft) in China in provinces of Sichuan, Xizang, Yunnan, and countries of Bhutan, India, Myanmar, and Nepal.

Aspidostemon is a genus of flowering plants belonging to the family Lauraceae. It occurs in Madagascar.

<i>Rubus flagellaris</i> Species of shrub

Rubus flagellaris, the northern dewberry, also known as the common dewberry, is a North American species perennial subshrub species of dewberry, in the rose family. This dewberry is distributed across much of Canada, Mexico, and the United States. It grows in diverse habitats ranging from drier savannas to temperate deciduous forests.

<i>Salix mesnyi</i> Species of plant in the genus Salix

Salix mesnyi is a species of willow native to southern and eastern China, Taiwan, and Vietnam. It can be found among shrubs near water growing 15 metres (49 ft) tall.

<i>Hypericum patulum</i> Species of flowering plant in the St Johns wort family Hypericaceae

Hypericum patulum, known as goldencup St. John's wort or yellow mosqueta, is a species of flowering plant in Hypericumsect. Ascyreia.

References

  1. 1 2 1. Lindera Thunberg, Flora of North America
  2. 1 2 3 4 5 5. Lindera Thunberg, Flora of China
  3. Coombes, Allen J. (2012). The A to Z of plant names . USA: Timber Press. ISBN   978-1-60469-196-2.
  4. Smith, Carl G.; Hamel, Paul B.; Devall, Margaret S.; Schiff, Nathan M. (March 2004). <0001:htitfo>2.0.co;2 "Hermit Thrush is the First Observed Dispersal Agent for Pondberry (Lindera melissifolia)". Castanea. 69 (1): 1–8. doi:10.2179/0008-7475(2004)069<0001:htitfo>2.0.co;2. ISSN   0008-7475. S2CID   3694410.
  5. Angier, Bradford (1974). Field Guide to Edible Wild Plants. Harrisburg, PA: Stackpole Books. p. 210. ISBN   0-8117-0616-8. OCLC   799792.
  6. Ichino, Kazuhiko (January 1989). "Two flavonoids from two Lindera umbellata varieties". Phytochemistry. 28 (3): 955–956. Bibcode:1989PChem..28..955I. doi:10.1016/0031-9422(89)80156-6. S2CID   84302225.