Tofieldia

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Tofieldia
Auf dem Lavafeld Dimmuborgir 6059.JPG
Tofieldia pusilla
Scientific classification OOjs UI icon edit-ltr.svg
Kingdom: Plantae
Clade: Tracheophytes
Clade: Angiosperms
Clade: Monocots
Order: Alismatales
Family: Tofieldiaceae
Genus: Tofieldia
Huds.
Type species
Tofieldia palustris   [1]
Huds.
Synonyms [2]
  • CymbaDulac
  • AsphodelirisMöhring ex Kuntze
  • NartheciumGérard 1761, rejected name, not Huds. 1762 (Nartheciaceae)
  • HeriteriaSchrank
  • HebeliaC.C.Gmel.
  • ConradiaRaf.
  • LeptilixRaf.

Tofieldia is a small genus of flowering plants described as a genus in 1778. [3] [4] It is widespread across much of Europe, Asia, and North America. [2] [5] [6] [7]

Contents

Tofieldia was once placed in the lily family, but is now generally included in the newer family Tofieldiaceae. The genus sometimes includes species of genus Triantha . Tofieldia are rhizomatous perennial herbs with spikes or racemes of lily-like flowers.

The name Tofieldia commemorates the British botanist Thomas Tofield. [5]

Description

Green glabrous perennials from short creeping rhizomes; leaves mostly radical, 2-ranked, laterally flattened, linear; scapes slender, few-leaved or naked; racemes sometimes spikelike, the flowers small, on short pedicels, in axils of bracts, solitary or in 3’s, bracteolate; tepals 6, persistent, linear-oblong to oblanceolate, white, greenish, or brownish red; stamens 6, the filaments linear-subulate, the anthers ovate, introrse, 2-locular; ovary superior, sessile, ovoid, 3-lobed at apex, the ovules numerous; styles short, the stigma introrse; capsules septicidal, 3-locular, the seeds small, narrowly oblong, caudate at one end or without appendage. About 20 species, in the temperate and northern regions of the N. Hemisphere. [8]

Species [2]

Use in systems of traditional medicine

At least three species of Tofieldia have been used in traditional medicine:

Use in folk magic

In Scotland, the species T. pusilla (under the honorific common name of "King's Knot") was formerly believed to have apotropaic powers. For this reason, it was often deliberately planted near homes and farms to ward off evil spirits and bring good luck. [9]

Ornamental use

The European T. calyculata and the American species formerly known as T. racemosa (now correctly known as Triantha racemosa ) have both occasionally been cultivated as ornamentals, while T. pusilla has been deemed too small and easily overlooked to have any garden value. [12]

Toxicity when raw

The acridity and potential toxicity of Tofieldia spp., when raw, may be accounted for by the fact that the genus, like other basal monocots (including, most notably, the related plant family Araceae [13] ) contains calcium oxalate crystals, present, in the case of Tofieldia, arranged in druses and as cuboidal crystals, rather than the raphides more usual in the Araceae. [14] In this connection, it may be noted that the species T. pusilla, when used in Scottish traditional medicine is prepared as a herbal tea [9] and thus subjected to both heat and steeping - both of which are used in the preparation of calcium oxalate-containing plants for food, as a means of eliminating the irritating oxalate crystals - most notably in the case of the popular tropical vegetable taro. [15]

Related Research Articles

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Tofieldiaceae is a family of flowering plants in the monocot order Alismatales. The family is divided into four genera, which together comprise 28 known species. They are small, herbaceous plants, mostly of arctic and subarctic regions, but a few extend further south, and one genus is endemic to northern South America and Florida. Tofieldia pusilla is sometimes grown as an ornamental.

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<i>Tofieldia pusilla</i> Species of flowering plant in the family Tofieldiaceae

Tofieldia pusilla is a species of flowering plant in the family Tofieldiaceae. It is also sometimes placed in the lily family, Liliaceae. Its common name is Scottish asphodel in Europe, and Scotch false asphodel in North America. The plant is native to northern North America and parts of Eurasia, its circumpolar distribution extending across Canada and the northern United States to Greenland, Iceland and northern Europe.

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

Triantha is a small genus of flowering plants in the family Tofieldiaceae, first described as a genus in 1879. False asphodel is a common name for plants in this genus.

<i>Triantha racemosa</i> Species of flowering plant

Triantha racemosa, commonly called the coastal false asphodel or southern bog asphodel, is a species of flowering plant in the Tofieldia family. It is native to the Coastal Plain of the Southeastern United States, although there are a few disjunct populations inland. It is found in acidic wetlands, including wet barrens and savannas.

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<i>Triantha occidentalis</i> Species of flowering plant

Triantha occidentalis, the western false asphodel, is a species of carnivorous flowering plant in the genus Triantha from the family Tofieldiaceae within the order of the Alismatales. It is found in the Pacific Northwest. It was recognised as a carnivorous plant in 2021, a rare occurrence within the Monocot clade.

References

  1. Le Roy Abrams & Roxana Stinchfield Ferris (1923). Ophioglossaceae to Aristolochiaceae, ferns to birthworts. Illustrated Flora of the Pacific States. Vol. 1. Stanford University Press. p. 372. ISBN   9780804700030.
  2. 1 2 3 "World Checklist of Selected Plant Families: Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew". apps.kew.org. Retrieved 2017-02-02.
  3. Hudson, William. 1778. Flora Anglica, Editio Altera 157("175").
  4. "Tropicos | Name - !Tofieldia Huds". www.tropicos.org. Retrieved 2017-02-02.
  5. 1 2 "Tofieldia in Flora of North America @ efloras.org". www.efloras.org. Retrieved 2017-02-02.
  6. "Tofieldia in Flora of China @ efloras.org". www.efloras.org. Retrieved 2017-02-02.
  7. Altervista Flora Italiana, genere Tofieldia includes photos and European distribution maps
  8. Ohwi, Jisaburo, National Science Museum, Tokyo, Japan, Flora of Japan (in English) pub. Smithsonian Institution Washington DC 1965. Section: Family 52. LILIACEAE Yuri Ka pps. 279-311, genus Tofieldia pps. 281 & 283.
  9. 1 2 3 Wild Flower Web http://www.wildflowerweb.co.uk/plant/2386/scottish-asphodel Retrieved at 11.04 on Monday 8/1/24.
  10. Zhao, Yanqiang; Yang, Zexing; Lang, Bayi; Wu Meng, Manfred Shao; Xue, Dayuan; Gao, Lu; Yang, Lixin (12 January 2021). "Skincare plants of the Naxi of NW Yunnan, China". Plant Diversity. 42 (6): 473–478. doi:10.1016/j.pld.2020.12.005. PMC   8553254 . PMID   34746526.
  11. Perry, Lily M. assisted by Metzger, Judith Medicinal Plants of East and Southeast Asia, pub. The MIT Press 1980 ISBN   0 262 16076 5, page 242 (in list of lesser-known plants classified under the catch-all of Liliaceae sensu lato).
  12. The Royal Horticultural Society Dictionary of Gardening ed. Chittenden, Fred J., 2nd edition, by Synge, Patrick M. Volume IV : Pt.-Zy. Pub. Oxford at the Clarendon Press 1965. Reprinted 1984. ISBN   0-19-869106-8, page 2121.
  13. Watson, John T.; Jones, Roderick C.; Siston, Alicia M.; Diaz, Pamela S.; Gerber, Susan I.; Crowe, John B.; Satzger, R. Duane (2005). "Outbreak of Food-borne Illness Associated with Plant Material Containing Raphides". Clinical Toxicology. 43 (1): 17–21. doi:10.1081/CLT-44721. PMID   15732442. S2CID   388923.
  14. Kolosova, Valeria; Svanberg, Ingvar; Kalle, Raivo; Strecker, Lisa; Özkan, Ayşe Mine Gençler; Pieroni, Andrea; Cianfaglione, Kevin; Molnár, Zsolt; Papp, Nora; Łuczaj, Łukasz; Dimitrova, Dessislava; Šeškauskaitė, Daiva; Roper, Jonathan; Hajdari, Avni; Sõukand, Renata (21 February 2017). "The bear in Eurasian plant names: motivations and models". Journal of Ethnobiology and Ethnomedicine. 13 (1): 14. doi: 10.1186/s13002-016-0132-9 . PMC   5320662 . PMID   28222790.
  15. The Morton Arboretum Quarterly, Morton Arboretum/University of California, 1965, p. 36.