Lady's mantle | |
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Scientific classification | |
Kingdom: | Plantae |
Clade: | Tracheophytes |
Clade: | Angiosperms |
Clade: | Eudicots |
Clade: | Rosids |
Order: | Rosales |
Family: | Rosaceae |
Genus: | Alchemilla |
Species: | A. vulgaris |
Binomial name | |
Alchemilla vulgaris | |
Alchemilla vulgaris, common name Lady's mantle, is an herbaceous perennial plant in Europe and Greenland. [1] These perennial wildflowers, members of the rose family, are sometimes grown in gardens - mainly for their leaves, which collect sparkling water droplets.
Lady's mantle is commonly seen in unimproved or lightly fertilized grassland, on roadside verges and banks, in chalk downland and on mountain slopes.
Synonyms:
The distinctively corrugated and lobed (5 to 11 lobes with the upper leaves having fewer) kidney-shaped to semicircular leaves of Alchemilla make identification to genus level fairly straightforward.
The yellowish-green flowers form clusters. Each individual flower is typically 3mm in diameter, with no true petals but a four-lobed epicalyx, four sepals and usually four but sometimes five stamens.
In Britain and Ireland the tiny flowers of Alchemilla vulgaris can be seen from June through to September.
Alchemilla mollis, a rather larger species but otherwise very similar, is quite a common garden escape that sometimes appears in hedgerows and on unkempt grassland. [3]
Other common names for Lady's Mantle are Nine Hooks, Bear's Foot, or Lion's Foot. [4]
Alchemilla vulgaris is a known host to a least three species of fungi, Coleroa alchemillae , Phoma herbarum and Ramularia aplospora . [5]
Rosaceae, the rose family, is a medium-sized family of flowering plants that includes 4,828 known species in 91 genera.
Potentilla is a genus containing over 300 species of annual, biennial and perennial herbaceous flowering plants in the rose family, Rosaceae.
Hepatica is a genus of herbaceous perennials in the buttercup family, native to central and northern Europe, Asia and eastern North America. Some botanists include Hepatica within a wider interpretation of Anemone.
Alchemilla is a genus of herbaceous perennial plants in the family Rosaceae, with the common name lady's mantle applied generically as well as specifically to Alchemilla mollis when referred to as a garden plant. The plant used as a herbal tea or for medicinal usage such as gynaecological disorders is Alchemilla xanthochlora or in Middle Europe the so-called common lady's mantle Alchemilla vulgaris. There are about 700 species, the majority native to cool temperate and subarctic regions of Europe and Asia, with a few species native to the mountains of Africa and the Americas.
Primula vulgaris, the common primrose, is a species of flowering plant in the family Primulaceae, native to western and southern Europe, northwest Africa, and parts of southwest Asia. The common name is primrose, or occasionally common primrose or English primrose to distinguish it from other Primula species also called primroses. None of these are closely related to the evening primroses.
Teucrium is a cosmopolitan genus of flowering plants in the family Lamiaceae, commonly known as germanders. Plants in this genus are perennial herbs or shrubs, with branches that are more or less square in cross-section, leaves arranged in opposite pairs, and flowers arranged in thyrses, the corolla with mostly white to cream-coloured, lobed petals.
Aquilegia vulgaris is a species of columbine native to Europe with common names that include: European columbine, common columbine, granny's nightcap, and granny's bonnet. It is a flowering herbaceous perennial plant growing to 1.2 m tall, with branched, thinly hairy stems. The leaves are biternate; each leaf has three groups of three leaflets. The flowers, in various shades of purple, blue, pink and white, are pendent or horizontal with strongly hooked spurs, and appear in early summer.
Pulsatilla vulgaris, the pasqueflower, is a species of flowering plant belonging to the buttercup family (Ranunculaceae), found locally on calcareous grassland in Europe, and widely cultivated in gardens. It was considered part of the genus Anemone, to which it is closely related. Several sources still list Anemone pulsatilla as the accepted name, with Pulsatilla vulgaris as a synonym.
Alchemilla alpina, commonly known as alpine lady's-mantle, is an arctic-montane herbaceous perennial plant native to Europe and Southern Greenland.
Linaria vulgaris, the common toadflax, yellow toadflax or butter-and-eggs, is a species of flowering plant in the family Plantaginaceae, native to Europe, Siberia and Central Asia. It has also been introduced and is now common in North America.
Alchemilla mollis, the garden lady's-mantle or lady's-mantle, is a species of flowering plant in the family Rosaceae. This herbaceous perennial plant is native to Southern Europe and grown throughout the world as an ornamental garden plant. It grows 30 to 45 cm tall, with leaves that are palmately veined, with a scalloped and serrated margin. The stipules are noteworthy in that they are fused together and leaf like. The chartreuse yellow flowers are held in dense clusters above the foliage. A. mollis has gained the Royal Horticultural Society's Award of Garden Merit. The plant self-seeds freely and can become invasive.
Spiranthes spiralis, commonly known as autumn lady's-tresses, is an orchid that grows in Europe and adjacent North Africa and Asia. It is a small grey-green plant. It forms a rosette of four to five pointed, sessile, ovate leaves about 3 cm (1.2 in) in length. In late summer an unbranched stem of about 10–15 cm (3.9–5.9 in) tall is produced with approximately four sheath-shaped leaves. The white flowers are about 5 mm (0.20 in) long and have a green spot on the lower lip. They are arranged in a helix around the upper half of the stalk. The species is listed in Appendix II of CITES as a species that is not currently threatened with extinction but that may become so. Autumn lady's-tresses are legally protected in Belgium and the Netherlands.
NVC community CG10 is one of the calcicolous grassland communities in the British National Vegetation Classification system. Of the upland group of calcicolous grasslands, it is the only one with a short sward associated with heavy grazing.
British NVC community MG3 is one of the mesotrophic grassland communities in the British National Vegetation Classification system. It is one of four such communities associated with well-drained permanent pastures and meadows.
Stachys sylvatica, commonly known as hedge woundwort, whitespot, or sometimes as hedge nettle, is a perennial herbaceous plant growing to 80 cm (31 in) tall in woodland and unmanaged grassland. In temperate zones of the northern hemisphere it flowers in July and August. The flowers are purple. The leaves, when crushed or bruised, give off an unpleasant fetid smell.
Pinguicula vulgaris, the common butterwort, is a perennial carnivorous plant in the bladderwort family, Lentibulariaceae.
Hydrocotyle vulgaris, the marsh pennywort, common pennywort, water naval, money plant, lucky plant or copper coin, is a small creeping aquatic perennial plant native to North Africa, Europe, the Caucasus and parts of the Levant.
Alchemilla erythropoda, the dwarf lady's mantle, is a species of flowering herbaceous perennial plant in the family Rosaceae, native to Eastern Europe. It forms a clump of hairy, palmate leaves up to 20 centimetres (7.9 in) high, with sprays of green-yellow flowers in early summer. The leaves of this and its relative A. mollis are noted for being highly water-repellent. It is smaller than A. mollis, however, and its leaves may develop a reddish tinge if grown in full sun.
Alchemilla arvensis, known as parsley-piert, is a sprawling, downy plant common all over the British Isles where It grows on arable fields and bare wastelands, particularly in dry sites. The short-stalked leaves have three segments each lobed at the tip. Flowers April–September. The tiny green flower has four sepals and no petals, the fruit is oval pointed. Stipules form a leaf-like cup, enclosing the flower. The name of parsley piert has nothing to do with parsley. It is a corruption of the French perce-pierre, meaning 'stone-piercer' and was given to the plant because of its habit of growing in shallow, stony soil and emerging between stones. As in the case of saxifrage it was wrongly assumed that the plant could pierce stones; and it was thought that a medicine made of parsley piert would break up stones in the bladder and kidneys. Old folk-names for the plant include 'colicwort' and 'bowel-hive-grass', showing that it was also used for intestinal ailments.
Iris acutiloba is a species in the genus Iris, it is also in the subgenus of Iris and section Oncocyclus. It is a rhizomatous perennial, from the mountains of the Caucasus and found in Turkey, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Turkmenistan, Dagestan in the North Caucasus, and Iran. It is a dwarf species, with narrow, falcate or curved leaves, it has one flower in spring or early summer, that comes in shades from cream, creamy white, whitish, pale brown, light grey, to pale violet. It is heavily veined or streaked and pointed, with 2 dark spots and brown, purple, dark purple, or black short beard. It is cultivated as an ornamental plant in temperate regions. There are two subspecies, Iris acutiloba subsp. lineolata and Iris acutiloba subsp. longitepala.