Nephroia carolina

Last updated

Nephroia carolina
Cocculus carolinus.jpg
Scientific classification OOjs UI icon edit-ltr.svg
Kingdom: Plantae
Clade: Tracheophytes
Clade: Angiosperms
Clade: Eudicots
Order: Ranunculales
Family: Menispermaceae
Genus: Nephroia
Species:
N. carolina
Binomial name
Nephroia carolina
(L.) L.Lian & Wei Wang (2020)
Synonyms [1]
Synonymy
  • Androphylax scandensJ.C.Wendl. (1798)
  • Baumgartia scandensMoench (1794)
  • Caesalpinia smilaceaSteud. (1840), not validly publ.
  • Cebatha carolina(L.) Britton (1894)
  • Cebatha sagittifolia(Miers) Kuntze (1891)
  • Cebatha virginica(L.) Kuntze (1891)
  • Cocculidium populifoliumSpach (1839)
  • Cocculus carolinianusAnon. (1886)
  • Cocculus carolinus(L.) DC. (1817)
  • Cocculus enneandraEichler (1864)
  • Cocculus sagittifoliusMiers (1871)
  • Epibaterium carolinum(L.) Britton (1913)
  • Menispermum carolinianumHill (1770), orth. var.
  • Menispermum carolinumL. (1753)
  • Menispermum virginicumL. (1753)
  • Wendlandia carolinianaNutt. (1818)
  • Wendlandia populifoliaWilld. (1799)

Nephroia carolina, commonly called the Carolina coralbead, [2] or snailseed, or Margil's Vine, [3] is a perennial vine of the moonseed family (Menispermaceae). It is native to North America, where it is found in northeastern Mexico and in several states in the United States from the Southeast to the Midwest.

Contents

The species' common name derives from the appearance of its small, rounded red fruits, and the rough half-moon shape of its seeds. [4]

Description

Nephroia carolina is a climbing woody vine reaching 5 meters (16 ft) or more. It produces ovate or triangle-shaped leaves, although the leaf shape is highly variable. Fruits and flowers are borne on axillary cymes. The male and female flowers are small and green, appearing on different plants. The bright red fruit, a drupe, appears from June to August. It reaches 8 mm (0.31 in) in size. Each fruit has a single seed that resembles a small snail shell, protected by the hard endocarp or the inner section of the ovary wall. [5]

Distribution

This species is native from northern Florida to Mexico, north to North Carolina, Kentucky, southern Illinois and southeast Kansas. [6] Its natural habitat is in rocky woodlands and streamside thickets, particularly in calcareous areas. [7] [8] It is a weedy species, and can also be found in disturbed habitats such as fencerows and waste areas. [5] [8]

Cultivation

Seeds Cocculus carolinus seeds, by Omar Hoftun.jpg
Seeds

The flowers are small and plentiful. At a young age Carolina coralbead appear greenish. The seeds need cold stratification of three months. Seeds germinate in 21 to 30 days at 68 °F. The plant blooms in late spring and the fruits, abundant bright red berries, are mature by late summer. Admiring its scarlet fruits, landscapers sometimes allow it to grow on trellises, fences or let it naturally spread among other weeds and shrubs.

This plant can be fast-growing and difficult to eradicate. [9]

Chemical components

Through photochemical analysis using spectral and mixed-melting comparison, the stems and leaves of Nephroia carolina were found to contain the following compounds: two cyclitols, (+)quercitol and (−)viburnitol; a lactone, loliolide; and three alkaloids, sinoacutine, magnoflorine, and palmatine.

Legend

The common name for this plant in East Texas is Margil's Vine, referencing a legend involving Antonio Margil OFM, the Spanish Franciscan missionary active throughout Texas in the early 18th century.

Related Research Articles

<i>Asimina</i> North American Genus of fruit trees

Asimina is a genus of small trees or shrubs described as a genus in 1763. Asimina is the only temperate genus in the tropical and subtropical flowering plant family Annonaceae. Asimina have large, simple leaves and large fruit. It is native to eastern North America and collectively referred to as pawpaw. The genus includes the widespread common pawpaw Asimina triloba, which bears the largest edible fruit indigenous to the United States. Pawpaws are native to 26 states of the U.S. and to Ontario in Canada. The common pawpaw is a patch-forming (clonal) understory tree found in well-drained, deep, fertile bottomland and hilly upland habitat. Pawpaws are in the same plant family (Annonaceae) as the custard apple, cherimoya, sweetsop, soursop, and ylang-ylang; the genus is the only member of that family not confined to the tropics.

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

Menispermum (moonseed) is a small genus of deciduous climbing woody vines in the moonseed family (Menispermaceae). Plants in this genus have small dioecious flowers, and clusters of small grape-like drupes. The name, moonseed, comes from the shape of the seed, which resembles a crescent moon. The word Menispermum is derived from the Greek words μήν (mēn), meaning (crescent) moon, and σπέρμα (sperma) meaning seed. The common name moonseed is also applied to some other species in the related genus Cocculus.

<i>Solanum dulcamara</i> Species of plant

Solanum dulcamara is a species of vine in the genus Solanum of the family Solanaceae. Common names include bittersweet, bittersweet nightshade, bitter nightshade, blue bindweed, Amara Dulcis, climbing nightshade, felonwort, fellenwort, felonwood, poisonberry, poisonflower, scarlet berry, snakeberry, trailing bittersweet, trailing nightshade, violet bloom, and woody nightshade.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Menispermaceae</span> Family of flowering plants

Menispermaceae is a family of flowering plants. The alkaloid tubocurarine, a neuromuscular blocker and the active ingredient in the 'tube curare' form of the dart poison curare, is derived from the South American liana Chondrodendron tomentosum. Several other South American genera belonging to the family have been used to prepare the 'pot' and 'calabash' forms of curare. The family contains 78 genera with some 440 species, which are distributed throughout low-lying tropical areas with some species present in temperate and arid regions.

<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>Menispermum canadense</i> Species of plant

Menispermum canadense, the Canadian moonseed, common moonseed, or yellow parilla, is a flowering plant in the family Menispermaceae, native to eastern North America, from southern Canada south to northern Florida, and from the Atlantic coast west to Manitoba and Texas. It occurs in thickets, moist woods, and the banks of streams.

<i>Vitis</i> Genus flowering plants in the grape family Vitaceae

Vitis (grapevine) is a genus of 81 accepted species of vining plants in the flowering plant family Vitaceae. The genus consists of species predominantly from the Northern Hemisphere. It is economically important as the source of grapes, both for direct consumption of the fruit and for fermentation to produce wine. The study and cultivation of grapevines is called viticulture.

<i>Hamamelis vernalis</i> Species of tree

Hamamelis vernalis, the Ozark witchhazel is a species of flowering plant in the witch-hazel family Hamamelidaceae, native to the Ozark Plateau in central North America, in Missouri, Oklahoma, and Arkansas. It is a large deciduous shrub growing to 4 m (13 ft) tall.

<i>Euonymus americanus</i> Species of flowering plant

Euonymus americanus is a species of flowering plant in the family Celastraceae. Common names include strawberry bush, American strawberry bush, bursting-heart, hearts-a-bustin, and hearts-bustin'-with-love. It is native to the eastern United States, its distribution extending as far west as Texas. It has also been recorded in Ontario.

<i>Sambucus racemosa</i> Species of plant

Sambucus racemosa is a species of elderberry known by the common names red elderberry and red-berried elder.

<i>Hydrangea radiata</i> Species of flowering plant in the family Hydrangeaceae

Hydrangea radiata is an attractive, deciduous shrub up to 3 m tall in the flowering plant family Hydrangeaceae. Its natural range is limited to the southern Appalachians, where it is fairly common. Its common names—silverleaf hydrangea or snowy hydrangea—reflect its distinctive foliage which is dark green on top and silvery white below; the sharply contrasting foliar colors makes this shrub conspicuous at a distance, especially in a breeze.

<i>Ribes roezlii</i> Species of flowering plant

Ribes roezlii is a North American species of gooseberry known by the common name Sierra gooseberry.

<i>Symphoricarpos albus</i> Species of flowering plant

Symphoricarpos albus is a species of flowering plant in the honeysuckle family known by the common name common snowberry. Native to North America, it is browsed by some animals and planted for ornamental and ecological purposes, but is poisonous to humans.

<i>Tetradymia canescens</i> Species of flowering plant

Tetradymia argyraea is a species of flowering plant in the aster family known by the common names spineless horsebrush and gray horsebrush. It is native to western North America.

<i>Elaeagnus pungens</i> Species of flowering plant

Elaeagnus pungens is a species of flowering plant in the family Elaeagnaceae, known by the common names thorny olive, spiny oleaster and silverthorn; also by the family name "oleaster". It is native to Asia, including China and Japan. It is present in the southeastern United States as an introduced species, a common landscaping and ornamental plant, and sometimes an invasive species.

<i>Gaylussacia frondosa</i> Berry and plant

Gaylussacia frondosa is a species of flowering plant in the heath family known by the common names dangleberry and blue huckleberry. It is native to the eastern United States, where it occurs from New Hampshire to South Carolina.

<i>Lyonia ligustrina</i> Species of tree

Lyonia ligustrina is a species of flowering plant in the family Ericaceae known by the common names maleberry and he-huckleberry. It is native to the eastern United States from Maine to Florida and west to Texas and Oklahoma.

<i>Rubus argutus</i> Species of fruit and plant

Rubus argutus is a North American species of prickly bramble in the rose family. It is a perennial plant native to the eastern and south-central United States. Common names are sawtooth blackberry or tall blackberry after its high growth.

<i>Lonicera flava</i> Species of honeysuckle native to the eastern United States

Lonicera flava is a species of honeysuckle native to the central and eastern United States. It is a woody vine with yellow-orange flowers that are slightly fragrant.

<i>Rosa setigera</i> Species of shrub

Rosa setigera, commonly known as the climbing rose, prairie rose, and climbing wild rose, is a species of shrub or vine in the Rosaceae (rose) family native to central and eastern North America.

References

  1. Nephroia carolina (L.) L.Lian & Wei Wang. Plants of the World Online . Retrieved 21 January 2024.
  2. USDA, NRCS (n.d.). "Cocculus carolinus". The PLANTS Database (plants.usda.gov). Greensboro, North Carolina: National Plant Data Team. Retrieved 1 February 2019.
  3. Vines, Robert A. Trees, Shrubs and Woody Vines of the Southwest. Austin: University of Texas Press, 1960. Pg. 275.
  4. "Menispermaceae". Cocculus Carolinus. UTexas. Retrieved 24 April 2011.
  5. 1 2 Cocculus carolinus Flora of North America
  6. "Cocculus carolinus". County-level distribution map from the North American Plant Atlas (NAPA). Biota of North America Program (BONAP). 2014. Retrieved 1 February 2019.
  7. Weakley, Alan (2015). "Flora of the Southern and Mid-Atlantic States".
  8. 1 2 Cocculus carolinis Archived 2019-03-03 at the Wayback Machine MissouriPlants
  9. "Cocculus carolinus". Native Plant Database. University of Texas at Austing. Retrieved 4 September 2012.