| Maianthemum paludicola | |
|---|---|
Scientific classification  | |
| Kingdom: | Plantae |
| Clade: | Tracheophytes |
| Clade: | Angiosperms |
| Clade: | Monocots |
| Order: | Asparagales |
| Family: | Asparagaceae |
| Subfamily: | Nolinoideae |
| Genus: | Maianthemum |
| Species: | M. paludicola |
| Binomial name | |
| Maianthemum paludicola LaFrankie | |
Maianthemum paludicola is a perennial flowering plant. It is a rare terrestrial herb, endemic to Costa Rica. It has only been found in high-elevation bogs and wetlands [1] [2] and was first described in 1986. [3]
Flower- and leaf-bearing stems grow off an unusual woody, aerial rhizome that is stiff, upright and linear or forked. It sits mostly out of the ground and is made up of lower parts of older shoots. [3] Plants grow to 1 m (3 ft) tall or more, off the rhizome. [1] Stems are upright, slightly flexuous, hairless and leafy. Stems usually have 9-12 (sometimes up to 14) spreading leaves set 1.5–3 cm (1–1 in) apart. [1]
Leaves have a short, 1-2 mm long petiole. Leaf blades are hairless, egg- to lance-shaped with pointed tips and rounded bases with flat (not undulating) edges. Upper leaves are 10–15 cm (4–6 in) long by 2–4.5 cm (1–2 in) wide. Lower leaves tend to be shorter and wider; 5–9 cm (2–4 in) long by 3–5 cm (1–2 in) wide. The venation pattern is distinctive, with veins that are uniform and not strongly evident. [1]
40 to 80 (up to 120) flowers are set on a pyramid-shaped, branched flowering stalk (panicle). The main axis of the panicle is 6-20 cm long, stiff and upright. It is slightly ribbed, hairless and red-violet. About 5 to 15 spreading to ascending side branches are set at 3-10 mm intervals along the main axis of the panicle. The side branches are 3-8 cm long with 1 or 2 flowers at the base and others set at intervals of 1.6-6 mm along the branch. Flowers are set on pedicels that are 2-5 mm long, ribbed and hairless.
The flowers have white, spreading tepals 3--4 mm long. Stamens are inserted at the tepal base. Fruits are rounded, 5-7 mm across, ripening to red. Flowering is from April to November but fruits are retained throughout the year. [1]
This is a species endemic to Costa Rica, documented in the provinces of San José and Cartago. [4]
Found from 2350 m to 3077 m elevation [4] in open, boggy sites, including along powerlines. [1]
Maianthemum includes the former genus Smilacina and is a genus of perennial herbaceous flowering plants with fleshy, persistent rhizomes. It is widespread across much of North America, Europe and Asia, and may be terrestrial, aquatic or epiphytic. It is characterized by simple, unbranched stems that are upright, leaning or hanging down and have 2–17 foliage leaves. Leaves are simple and may clasp the stem or be short-petiolate. The inflorescence is terminal and either a panicle or a raceme with few to many pedicelate flowers. Most species have 6 tepals and 6 stamens; a few have parts in 4s. Tepals are distinct in most species and all of similar size. Flowers are spreading, cup-shaped or bell-shaped and usually white, but lavender to red or green in some species. Fruits are rounded to lobed berries containing few to several seeds.
Maianthemum canadense is an understory perennial flowering plant, native to Canada and the north-eastern United States, from Yukon and British Columbia east to Newfoundland, into St. Pierre and Miquelon. It can be found growing in both coniferous and deciduous forests. The plant appears in two forms, either as a single leaf rising from the ground with no fruiting structures or as a flowering/fruiting stem with 2-3 leaves. Flowering shoots have clusters of 12–25 starry-shaped, white flowers held above the leaves.
Maianthemum racemosum, the treacleberry, feathery false lily of the valley, false Solomon's seal, Solomon's plume or false spikenard, is a species of flowering plant native to North America. It is a common, widespread plant with numerous common names and synonyms, known from every US state except Hawaii, and from every Canadian province and territory, as well as from Mexico.
Maianthemum trifolium is a species of flowering plant that is associated with extremely wet environments and is native to Canada and the northeastern United States as well as St. Pierre and Miquelon and Asia (Siberia).
Wachendorfia is a genus of perennial herbaceous plants that is assigned to the bloodroot family. The plants have a perennial rootstock with red sap. From the rootstock emerge lance- or line-shaped, sometime sickle-shaped, pleated, simple leaves set in a fan, that are flattened to create a left and right surface rather than an upper and lower surface. The leaves die when the seeds are shed in three of the species, and are perennial in one species. The rootstock also produces flowering stems annually that carry a panicle of zygomorphic, yellow or yellowish flowers in two distinct forms, one with the style and one stamen bent to the right and two stamens to the left, and vice versa. The fruit opens with three valves and each contains a single, hairy seed. All species only occur in the fynbos biome in the Cape provinces of South Africa.
Maianthemum stellatum is a species of flowering plant, native across North America. It has been found in northern Mexico, every Canadian province and territory except Nunavut, and from every US state except Hawaii and the states of the Southeast. It has little white buds in the spring, followed by delicate starry flowers, then green-and-black striped berries, and finally deep red berries in the fall.
Carex porrecta is a plant species known from Costa Rica, Colombia, Venezuela and Ecuador. It is found in humid forests at elevations of 1,600–2,600 metres (5,200–8,500 ft).
Dilatris is a genus of four species of evergreen perennial herbaceous plants of up to 60 cm (2.0 ft) high, that are assigned to the bloodroot family. The plants have hairless, line- to lance-shaped leaves set in a fan that emerges from a red or orange coloured rootstock. The mauve or dirty yellow flowers have six free tepals that have some gland dots near their tips. One stamen is short, upright, with a large, yellow anther, the other two are longer, spreading, with smaller scarlet anthers. The style is diverted from the centre opposite both longer stamens. The species only occur in the Western Cape and Northern Cape provinces of South Africa.
Maianthemum paniculatum is a perennial flowering plant; a species of monocot found from Mexico to Panama. It is often associated with montane environments and is found primarily in forest openings and along roadsides.
Corsia ornata is a species of flowering plant in the genus Corsia of the small family Corsiaceae, part of the monocot order Liliales. They are saprophytes (Myco-heterotrophs), lacking the ability to photosynthesise, being dependent on other organisms for their nutrition. The plant lives underground, sending up purplish stems above ground in order to flower. The leaves are reduced to scales. One of the six petal-like tepals named the labellum, is specialised, being enlarged and hanging protectively over the reproductive organs. It was discovered in New Guinea in 1875, but has since been sighted in Queensland, Australia.
Wachendorfia thyrsiflora, the marsh butterfly lily, is a plant species of 0.6–2.5 m (2.0–8.2 ft) high when flowering, that has been assigned to the bloodroot family. It is a large to very large evergreen perennial plant with an underground rootstock with clusters of roots produced at the nodes. The rootstock has a distinctive red colour that results from so-called arylphenalenone pigments. The sturdy, entire and broadly sword-shaped leaves have laterally flattened and pleated leaf blades. The golden yellow flowers are set a dense cylindrical panicle on a tall firm stalk. Flowering occurs from spring until mid-summer.
Maianthemum amoenum is a perennial flowering plant, growing as an epiphyte on trees in cloud forests from Mexico south to Honduras.
Maianthemum monteverdense is a perennial flowering plant of restricted distribution. It grows as an epiphyte on trees in high cloud forests of 1600 m + elevation from Nicaragua to Costa Rica.
Maianthemum gigas is a perennial flowering plant. It is found in Mexico and Central America, growing in forest openings and along roadsides or sometimes as an epiphyte on trees.
Maianthemum macrophyllum is a perennial flowering plant. It is a rare epiphtic herb endemic to Veracruz and Oaxaca, Mexico and is known only from primary cloud forests, usually growing on limbs of oaks or sweetgum.
Maianthemum scilloideum is a perennial flowering plant. It is a terrestrial forest herb from southern Mexico and Guatemala and also reported from Honduras.
Maianthemum flexuosum is a perennial, terrestrial understory herb of cloud forests from southern Mexico to Nicaragua. It has been found at sites from 1300 to 2800 m elevation.
Maianthemum salvinii is a rare perennial, epiphytic herb found in southern Mexico and Guatemala.
Maianthemum mexicanum is a perennial, terrestrial herb found as an understory species in moist forests. It is endemic to west-central Mexico.
Babiana hirsuta is a species of geophyte of 40–70 cm (16–28 in) high that is assigned to the family Iridaceae. It has many scarlet mirror-symmetrical flowers in a branched inflorescence with several short ascending branches. The flower has a narrow tube, and three large, blackish or dark purple anthers that extend beyond the dorsal tepal. The leaves are velvety hairy, lance-shaped, laterally compressed and set in a fan. It is an endemic species of South Africa that can be found along the west coast of the Northern and Western Cape provinces as far south as Saldanha. It is called red babiana in English, but that name is also applied to Babiana villosa, and strandlelie, sandlelie and rooihanekam in Afrikaans. Until 2008, the strandlelie was known as Babiana thunbergii.