Senega nana

Last updated

Senega nana
Polygalanana.jpg
Scientific classification OOjs UI icon edit-ltr.svg
Kingdom: Plantae
Clade: Tracheophytes
Clade: Angiosperms
Clade: Eudicots
Clade: Rosids
Order: Fabales
Family: Polygalaceae
Genus: Senega
Species:
S. nana
Binomial name
Senega nana
(Michx.) J.F.B.Pastore & J.R.Abbott
Synonyms
List
  • Polygala lutea var. nanaMichx.
  • Polygala nana(Michx.) DC.
  • Psilotaxis nana(Michx.) Raf.
  • Pylostachya nana(Michx.) Raf.
  • Polygala hyemalisRaf.
  • Polygala nana var. humillimaChodat
  • Polygala viridescensWalter
  • Pylostachya hyemalisRaf.

Senega nana, commonly known as candyroot or low bachelors' buttons, is a small species of herbaceous plant native to the south-eastern United States. The root has a sweet liquorice flavor when it is chewed, but it is usually hidden underground until the plant flowers. The seeds of candyroot are dispersed by ants.

Contents

Taxonomy

French botanist André Michaux described candyroot as a variety of Polygala lutea in 1803. [1] Swiss botanist Augustin Pyramus de Candolle reclassified it as a species in 1824. [2] The species name is the Latin word nanus "dwarf".

Description

Candyroot grows as a clumping herbaceous plant 10–15 cm (4–6 in) tall, [3] more commonly 5–10 cm (2–4 in) tall. Growing from the base of the plant are the spathulate (spoon-shaped) leaves, which are 1.5–5 cm (12–2 in) long and 0.4–2 cm (1434 in) cm wide. The yellow flowerheads are composed of tiny flowers arranged in racemes, and are 2–4 cm (341+12 in) high by 1.5 cm (12 in) wide. [4] They appear from April to June, [3] from March to October in Alabama, [5] and year-round in the Everglades. The seeds are smaller than 1 mm in size. The edible root tastes of licorice. [6]

Senega nana resembles Senega lutea , which is a taller plant. [4] It also resembles the rare species P. smallii of Miami-Dade County, which has seeds longer than 1 mm. [6]

Distribution and habitat

Senega nana is found across the south-eastern United States from far eastern Texas through Louisiana and Arkansas to Florida and north as far as the Carolinas. [7] Arkansas, where it is found in Ashley, Bradley and Calhoun Counties, marks the northwestern limits of its range. [8] [9] It grows in moist soil in meadows or coniferous woodlands. [3]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Augustin Pyramus de Candolle</span> Swiss botanist noted for contributions to taxonomy (1778–1841)

Augustin Pyramusde Candolle was a Swiss botanist. René Louiche Desfontaines launched de Candolle's botanical career by recommending him at a herbarium. Within a couple of years de Candolle had established a new genus, and he went on to document hundreds of plant families and create a new natural plant classification system. Although de Candolle's main focus was botany, he also contributed to related fields such as phytogeography, agronomy, paleontology, medical botany, and economic botany.

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

Polygala is a large genus of flowering plants belonging to the family Polygalaceae. They are commonly known as milkworts or snakeroots. The genus is distributed widely throughout much of the world in temperate zones and the tropics. The genus name Polygala comes from the ancient Greek "much milk", as the plant was thought to increase milk yields in cattle.

<i>Calla</i> Monotypic genus of flowering plant in the arum family Araceae

Calla is a genus of flowering plant in the family Araceae, containing the single species Calla palustris.

<i>Cleomella serrulata</i> Species of flowering plant

Cleomella serrulata, commonly known as Rocky Mountain beeplant/beeweed, stinking-clover, bee spider-flower, skunk weed, Navajo spinach, and guaco, is a species of annual plant in the genus Cleomella. Many species of insects are attracted to it, especially bees, which helps in the pollination of nearby plants. It is native to southern Canada and the western and central United States. The plant has often been used for food, to make dyes for paint, and as a treatment in traditional medicine.

<i>Passiflora lutea</i> Species of vine

Passiflora lutea, commonly known as yellow passionflower, is a flowering perennial vine in the family Passifloraceae, native to the central and eastern United States. The vine has three-lobed leaves and small, yellowish-green, fringed flowers that appear in the summer, followed by green fruit that turn almost black at maturity. It grows in moist to wet habitats.

<i>Acacia binervata</i> Species of shrub

Acacia binervata, commonly known as two-veined hickory, is a shrub or tree that is endemic to eastern Australia.

<i>Xanthosia rotundifolia</i> Species of flowering plant

Xanthosia rotundifolia, commonly known as southern cross, is a species of flowering plant in the family Apiaceae and is endemic to the south-west of Western Australia. It is an erect, perennial herb with serrated or toothed leaves and white to creamy-yellow flowers.

<i>Hybanthus calycinus</i> Species of flowering plant

Hybanthus calycinus is a perennial herb of the violet family, Violaceae. The species is endemic to the south-west of Western Australia.

<i>Coronidium elatum</i> Species of flowering plant

Coronidium elatum, commonly known as the white paper daisy or tall everlasting, is a perennial herbaceous shrub in the family Asteraceae found in open forests in eastern Australia. A woody shrub 0.6 to 2 m tall, it has white flowers which appear in spring. It was known as Helichrysum elatum for many years until it was finally reviewed in 2008.

<i>Pulsatilla nuttalliana</i> Species of flowering plant

Pulsatilla nuttalliana, known as American pasqueflower, prairie pasqueflower, prairie crocus, or simply pasqueflower, is a flowering plant native to much of North America, from the western side of Lake Michigan, to northern Canada in the Northwest Territories, south to New Mexico in the southwestern United States. Pasqueflower is the provincial flower of Manitoba and the state flower of South Dakota.

<i>Capparis lasiantha</i> Species of plant in the family Capparaceae endemic to Australia

Capparis lasiantha is an endemic Australian plant with a range that extends from the Kimberley region through the Northern Territory and Queensland to northern New South Wales, primarily in drier inland areas although the species extends to the coast in Central Queensland. Common names are numerous and include wyjeelah, nepine, split jack, nipang creeper, nipan, native orange and bush caper.

<i>Polygala senega</i> Species of flowering plant

Polygala senega is a species of flowering plant in the milkwort family, Polygalaceae. It is native to North America, where it is distributed in southern Canada and the central and eastern United States. Its common names include Seneca snakeroot, senega snakeroot, senegaroot, rattlesnake root, and mountain flax. Its species name honors the Seneca people, a Native American group who used the plant to treat snakebite.

<i>Dillenia alata</i> Species of plant in the family Dilleniaceae

Dillenia alata, commonly known as red beech, golden guinea flower or golden guinea tree, is a tree in the Dilleniaceae family, found in tropical forests of the Moluccas, New Guinea, and northern Australia.

<i>Desmodium glabellum</i> Species of legume

Desmodium glabellum is a species of flowering plant in the legume family Fabaceae. It is native to the eastern and central United States. It is commonly called Dillenius' tick-trefoil in honor of Johann Dillenius, a British botanist of German birth. It is also known as the tall tick-trefoil.

<i>Senega poaya</i> Species of flowering plant

Senega poaya is a herbaceous species of plant native to South America. It is a perennial plant, becoming somewhat woody at the base. It grows to a clump of stems 8–50 cm tall. The root is sometimes used for local medicinal use. It is also an active emetic.

<i>Senega alba</i> Species of flowering plant

Senega alba, commonly called white milkwort, is a species of flowering plant in the milkwort family (Polygalaceae).

<i>Mairia hirsuta</i> Perennial plant in the daisy family from South Africa

Mairia hirsuta is a tufted perennial, herbaceous plant of up to 40 cm high, that is assigned to the family Asteraceae. Most of its narrow to broad elliptic or inverted egg-shaped leaves are part of the basal rosette, have margin that is rolled under, with rounded or pointy teeth or with some peg-like extensions, lightly woolly on the upper surface and densely woolly on the underside, but always the green remains visible. Flower heads have been found from July to November, mostly after a fire or when the soil has been disturbed. The species can be found in the southern mountains of the Western Cape province of South Africa.

<i>Felicia tenella</i> A annual or biennial plant in the daisy family from South Africa

Felicia tenella is an annual, sometimes biennial, herbaceous plant that may be slightly woody at its base, of 5–70 cm tall, that is assigned to the family Asteraceae. The species is very variable in size and hairiness. Its branches may be erect or ascending, and the leaves are narrowly line-shaped, 2–5 cm long and about 1 mm (0.04 in) wide. The leaves have a callous tip, lack visible nerves, and are mostly rigidly ciliate. The flower heads sit individually at the tip of stalks, have an involucre of three whorls of bracts, and about thirty light blue ray florets surrounding many yellow disc florets. Four subspecies are recognised. The species naturally occurs in the Northern Cape and Western Cape provinces of South Africa.

<i>Pyrrhopappus pauciflorus</i> Species of flowering plant

Pyrrhopappus pauciflorus, commonly known as smallflower desert-chicory, Texas false dandelion or Texas dandelion, is a species of flowering plant in the family Asteraceae. It is native to the southern United States and northern Mexico. It is a weedy annual found in prairies, clay soils and disturbed habitats such as fields and sidewalks.

Senega boykinii, known by the common name Boykin's milkwort, is a species of flowering plant. It grows to about 2 feet high and produces a spear of white flowers. It is a dicot in the family Polygalaceae. It has been collected in the south-eastern United States.

References

  1. Michaux, Andreas (1803). Flora boreali-americana :sistens caracteres plantarum quas in America septentrionali collegit et detexit Andreas Michaux. Vol. 2. Paris, France: Levrault brothers. p. 54.
  2. De Candolle, Augustin Pyramus (1824). Prodromus Systematis Naturalis Regni Vegetabilis. Vol. 1. Paris, France: Treuttel et Würtz. p. 328.
  3. 1 2 3 Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center (2015). "Polygala nana". NPIN: Native Plant Database. Austin, TX: University of Texas at Austin. Retrieved 18 July 2015.
  4. 1 2 Godfrey, Robert K.; Wooten, Jean W. (2011). Aquatic and Wetland Plants of Southeastern United States: Dicotyledons. University of Georgia Press. p. 275. ISBN   9780820342436.
  5. Blanche E. Dean; Amy Mason; Joab L. Thomas (1983). Wildflowers of Alabama and Adjoining States. University of Alabama Press. p. 94. ISBN   9780817301477.
  6. 1 2 Hammer, Roger L. (2015). Everglades Wildflowers: A Field Guide to Wildflowers of the Historic Everglades, including Big Cypress, Corkscrew, and Fakahatchee Swamps. Rowman & Littlefield. p. 143. ISBN   9781493014590.
  7. Natural Resources Conservation Service (2015). "Polygala nana (Michx.) DC. Show All candyroot". Plants Database. USDA. Retrieved 18 July 2015.
  8. Hunter, Carl G. (2000). Wildflowers of Arkansas. University of Arkansas Press. p. 126. ISBN   9780912456164.
  9. Biota of North America Program 2014 county distribution map