Blephilia

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Blephilia
Blephilia ciliata.jpg
Downy pagoda-plant (Blephilia ciliata)
Scientific classification OOjs UI icon edit-ltr.svg
Kingdom: Plantae
Clade: Tracheophytes
Clade: Angiosperms
Clade: Eudicots
Clade: Asterids
Order: Lamiales
Family: Lamiaceae
Subfamily: Nepetoideae
Tribe: Mentheae
Genus: Blephilia
(L.) Raf.

Blephilia, the pagoda plant or wood mint, is a genus of four species of flowering plants in the family Lamiaceae. They are all herbaceous plants native to eastern North America. [1] [2] Blephilia are most often found in open areas, glades, and mesic forests. All species of Blephilia are considered threatened or endangered in some states. [3] [4] [5] [6]

The genus includes only perennial species that spread by both seeds and through stem division. Small white to purple-lavender flowers occur in inflorescences that cluster in the upper leaf axils, often in several circular layers (hence the common name pagoda-plant). Leaves are generally lanceolate to ovate and vary in shades of green. Leaves are either petiolate or subsessile (depending on the species). [5] Like many other members of the subtribe Menthinae, all parts of Blephilia are highly aromatic when crushed and have smells similar to menthol and spearmint.[ citation needed ]

Species

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<i>Micromeria douglasii</i> Species of flowering plant

Micromeria douglasii, synonym Clinopodium douglasii, or yerba buena, is a rambling aromatic herb of western and northwestern North America, ranging from maritime Alaska southwards to California. The plant takes the form of a sprawling, mat-forming perennial, and is especially abundant close to the coast. The name "yerba buena" derives from Spanish for "good herb" and is applied to various other plants. In 2010, molecular evidence placed the species within the Clinopodium complex rather than Micromeria.

<i>Stachys</i> Genus of plants in the sage family

Stachys is a genus of plants, one of the largest in the mint family Lamiaceae. Estimates of the number of species vary from about 300, to about 450. Stachys is in the subfamily Lamioideae and its type species is Stachys sylvatica. The precise extent of the genus and its relationship to other genera in the subfamily are poorly known.

<i>Helianthus</i> Genus of flowering plants, the sunflowers

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<i>Monarda</i> Genus of flowering plants

Monarda is a genus of flowering plants in the mint family, Lamiaceae. The genus is endemic to North America. Common names include bergamot, bee balm, horsemint, and oswego tea, the first being inspired by the fragrance of the leaves, which is reminiscent of bergamot orange. The genus was named for the Spanish botanist Nicolás Monardes, who wrote a book in 1574 describing plants of the New World.

<i>Agastache</i> Genus of flowering plants

Agastache is a genus of aromatic flowering herbaceous perennial plants in the family Lamiaceae. It contains 22 species, mainly native to North America, one species native to eastern Asia. The common names of the species are a variety of fairly ambiguous and confusing "hyssops" and "mints"; as a whole the genus is known as giant hyssops or hummingbird mints.

<i>Clinopodium</i> Genus of flowering plants

Clinopodium is a genus of flowering plants in the family Lamiaceae. It is in the tribe Mentheae of the subfamily Nepetoideae, but little else can be said with certainty about its phylogenetic position.

<i>Triodanis</i> Genus of flowering plants

Triodanis is a genus of flowering plants within the family Campanulaceae, native to North and South America. Venus' looking-glass is a common name for plants in this genus.

<i>Lycopus</i> Genus of flowering plants

Lycopus is a genus in the family Lamiaceae. They are all herbaceous plants native to Europe, Asia, Australia, and North America. The species are most often found in wetlands, damp meadows, and stream banks. Some of the wetland species have become endangered.

<i>Physostegia</i> Genus of flowering plants

Physostegia, the lionshearts or false dragonheads, is a genus of flowering plants in the family Lamiaceae, native to North America. They are erect rhizomatous herbaceous perennials inhabiting damp, sunny places. They grow up to 2 m (7 ft) tall with purple or pink tubular flowers in racemes in summer.

<i>Trichostema</i> Genus of flowering plants

Trichostema is a genus of flowering plants in the family Lamiaceae, which are aromatic herbs or subshrubs. These plants are native to North America. Many plant of this genus which have whorls of small blue flowers are called by the common name bluecurls.

<i>Monarda fistulosa</i> Species of flowering plant

Monarda fistulosa, the wild bergamot or bee balm, is a wildflower in the mint family Lamiaceae, widespread and abundant as a native plant in much of North America. This plant, with showy summer-blooming pink to lavender flowers, is often used as a honey plant, medicinal plant, and garden ornamental. The species is quite variable, and several subspecies or varieties have been recognized within it.

<i>Pycnanthemum</i> Genus of flowering plants

Pycnanthemum is a genus of herbaceous plants in the mint family (Lamiaceae). Species in this genus are often referred to as "mountain mints" and they often have a minty or thyme-like aroma when crushed. All species of Pycnanthemum are native to the United States and Canada. The center of diversity for the genus is North Carolina with 13 of the 20 species having been collected therein. Nineteen of the 20 species of Pycnanthemum occur in the Eastern US and Canada, and one disjunct species occurs in California and Oregon.

<i>Dicerandra</i> Genus of flowering plants

Dicerandra is a genus of flowering plants in the mint family. Dicerandra comprises 11 species: six perennial and five annual species. The perennials have narrow ranges in Central Florida with small population sizes and only occur on ancient dune ridges along the Lake Wales Ridge or the Atlantic coastal ridge; the annual species occur more broadly on sandhill habitats to the north. The perennials’ habitat has been severely fragmented due to human development over the past century. As a result, all perennial species except one are listed as federally endangered. Annual species of the clade have large ranges when compared to perennial members, with distributions of annuals ranging for hundreds of miles from the Panhandle of Florida to southeastern Georgia, with the exception of Dicerandra radfordiana which is endemic to two sites along the Altamaha river. The genus is characterized by hornlike spurs on their anthers.

<i>Blephilia hirsuta</i> Species of flowering plant

Blephilia hirsuta is an herbaceous perennial of the mint family Lamiaceae native to eastern North America. It is commonly called hairy wood-mint or hairy pagoda plant.

<i>Blephilia ciliata</i> Species of plant

Blephilia ciliata is a species of herbaceous perennial plant in the Lamiaceae (mint) family native to central and eastern North America. It is commonly called downy wood mint. Other common names include downy pagoda-plant, sunny woodmint and Ohio horsemint.

<i>Solidago arenicola</i> Species of flowering plant

Solidago arenicola is a rare species of flowering plant in the family Asteraceae known by the common name Locust Fork goldenrod. It has been found only in the states of Tennessee and Alabama in the United States. It is endemic to riverside scour areas on the Cumberland Plateau, where it is often locally abundant.

Dicerandra densiflora, the Florida balm, is a species of flowering plant in the mint family known by the common names scrub mint and scrub balm. It is native to North Central Florida, where it occurs along sand hill habitats. It is a member of the annual subclade of Dicerandra. D. densiflora grows up to 2 ft (61 cm) tall. Flower petals are lavender to purple in color with dark spots.

Dicerandra odoratissima, commonly known as the rose balm, is a species of Dicerandra native to the Southeastern Coastal Plain, with a geographic range that extends from eastern Georgia to southern South Carolina. Kral (1982) originally suggested that this species was so distinct from the remaining members of the genus that it should be placed in a separate section or a distinct genus. Today, D. odoratissima and its close relative D. radfordiana are members of the Lecontea clade.

<i>Stachys hispida</i> Species of flowering plant

Stachys hispida, commonly known as hispid hedgenettle, is a species of flowering plant in the mint family (Lamiaceae). It is native to eastern North America, where it is found in Canada and the United States. Its natural habitat is in moist areas, such as alluvial banks, bottomland forests, and wet meadows.

References

  1. "Blephilia". World Checklist of Selected Plant Families (WCSP). Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew.
  2. "Blephilia". County-level distribution maps from the North American Plant Atlas (NAPA). Biota of North America Program (BONAP). 2013.
  3. USDA, NRCS (n.d.). "Blephilia". The PLANTS Database (plants.usda.gov). Greensboro, North Carolina: National Plant Data Team. Retrieved July 16, 2007.
  4. "Blephilia". Native Plant Database. Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center, University of Texas at Austin . Retrieved July 16, 2007.
  5. 1 2 Simmers, Richard W.; Kral, Robert (1992). "A New Species of Blephilia (Lamiaceae) from Northern Alabama". Rhodora. 94 (877): 1–14. ISSN   0035-4902. JSTOR   23313168.
  6. Floden, Aaron; Schilling, Edward (2020). "A new stenoendemic species of Blephilia (Lamiaceae: Lamioideae; Menthinae) from the Interior Low Plateau of Tennessee". Phytotaxa. 442 (2): 101–110.