Achlys (plant)

Last updated

Achlys
Achlys triphylla 1033.JPG
Achlys triphylla (Mount Rainier National Park)
Scientific classification Red Pencil Icon.png
Kingdom: Plantae
Clade: Tracheophytes
Clade: Angiosperms
Clade: Eudicots
Order: Ranunculales
Family: Berberidaceae
Genus: Achlys
DC.
Type species
Achlys triphylla

Achlys is a small genus of flowering plants in the barberry family (Berberidaceae), which it shares with genera such as Berberis and Vancouveria . [1] It is named after the Greek legendary figure associated with shade and mist, Achlys, because the plants grow in the shade. [2] [3]

Contents

Species

There are either two or three species, depending on the authority. Achlys triphylla and Achlys californica are both native to western North America. Another Achlys is found in Japan: some authorities treat this as a subspecies of A. triphylla, while others, especially in older treatments, call this Achlys japonica. Still others consider A. triphylla and A. californica too similar to be separate species. The common names for these plants include vanilla leaf (sometimes written as vanilla-leaf or vanillaleaf, depending on the taxonomist or flora), deer's foot and sweet after death, referring to the vanilla scent of its crushed leaves. [1] [4]

The Plant List recognizes two species, with A. californica regarded as a subspecies of A. triphylla

ImageScientific nameDistribution
Achlys triphylla 0974.JPG Achlys triphylla (Sm.) DC.British Columbia, Washington, Oregon, NW California [5]
Achlys japonica 4.JPG Achlys japonica Maxim.Japan

Description

Achlys triphylla, known in western North America as vanillaleaf, is an erect perennial plant that sprouts from a creeping rhizome. Leaves are long-petioled and palmately divided into three leaflets. Flowers are small and lack sepals and petals, but instead have long showy white stamens that form single erect spikes. [1] The leaflets give a great hint to the identification of the plant: bend back the middle leaflet and you have an upside-down set of moose antlers. Alternatively, bend back the two side leaflets and you have a goose or deer foot (hence the common name). In the Pacific Northwest, Achlys triphylla is ubiquitous in moist shady forests west of the Cascades at low to middle elevations from Vancouver island and southern British Columbia south to northern California. [4]

The plants are spaced widely on the rhizomes, but often overlap in large networks that result in carpets of Achlys that dominate the near-surface understory. Achlys seems to prefer moist soil, so at middle to higher elevations it is easier to find them along streambanks or well-shaded ravines. [4]

Insect repellent

When dried properly, the plants are strongly aromatic and smell of vanilla. Besides serving as an excellent tent air freshener, Achlys has been used by native tribes of southern British Columbia as an insect repellent. The dried leaves were hung in bunches in doorways to ward off flies and mosquitoes, and it's not unheard of for naturalists to rub the dried or even fresh leaves on exposed skin when hiking the Olympics or Cascades during the summer mosquito season. [4]

Japanese Achlys are quite similar to those found in western North America.

Related Research Articles

<i>Umbellularia</i> Genus of trees

Umbellularia californica is a large hardwood tree native to coastal forests and the Sierra foothills of California, and to coastal forests extending into Oregon. It is endemic to the California Floristic Province. It is the sole species in the genus Umbellularia.

<i>Gaultheria shallon</i> Species of flowering plant

Gaultheria shallon is an evergreen shrub in the heather family (Ericaceae), native to western North America. In English, it is known as salal, shallon, or gaultheria.

<i>Lonicera japonica</i> Flowering shrub known as Japanese honeysuckle

Lonicera japonica, known as Japanese honeysuckle and golden-and-silver honeysuckle, is a species of honeysuckle native to eastern Asia. It is often grown as an ornamental plant, but has become an invasive species in a number of countries. Japanese honeysuckle is used in traditional Chinese medicine.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Marsileaceae</span> Family of ferns

Marsileaceae is a small family of heterosporous aquatic and semi-aquatic ferns, though at first sight they do not physically resemble other ferns. The group is commonly known as the "pepperwort family" or as the "water-clover family" because the leaves of the genus Marsilea superficially resemble the leaves of a four-leaf clover. In all, the family contains 3 genera and 50 to 80 species with most of those belonging to Marsilea.

<i>Maianthemum racemosum</i> Species of flowering plant

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.

<i>Aesculus californica</i> Species of plant

Aesculus californica, commonly known as the California buckeye or California horse-chestnut, is a species of buckeye native to California and southwestern Oregon.

<i>Frangula californica</i> Species of tree

Frangula californica is a species of flowering plant in the buckthorn family native to western North America. It produces edible fruits and seeds. It is commonly known as California coffeeberry and California buckthorn.

<i>Mahonia nervosa</i> Species of flowering plant

Mahonia nervosa, commonly known as dwarf Oregon-grape, Cascade barberry, Cascade Oregon-grape, or dull Oregon-grape, is a flowering plant native to the northwest coast of North America from southern British Columbia south to central California, with an isolated population inland in northern Idaho. It is especially common in second growth, Douglas-fir or western redcedar forests, making use of those pools of sunlight that intermittently reach the ground.

<i>Paeonia californica</i> Species of tree

Paeonia californica is a perennial herbaceous plant of 35–70 cm high, that retreats underground in summer, and reoccurs with the arrival of the winter rains. It has lobed leaves, elliptic (cup-shaped) drooping flowers with dark maroon-colored petals, and many yellow anthers. It flowers mostly from January to March, and later develops two to five fruits per flower. Its common name is California peony and it is sometimes also referred to as wild peony. This peony is an endemic of southwestern California (USA), where it is not rare, and northernmost Baja California (Mexico). It grows on dry hillsides in the coastal sage scrub and chaparral communities of the coastal mountains of Southern and Central California, often as an understory plant.

<i>Tiarella trifoliata</i> Species of flowering plant

Tiarella trifoliata, the three-leaf foamflower, is a species of flowering plant in the family Saxifragaceae. The specific name trifoliata means "having three leaflets", a characteristic of two of the three recognized varieties. Also known as the laceflower or sugar-scoop, the species is found in shaded, moist woods in western North America.

<i>Rosa californica</i> Species of plant

Rosa californica, the California wildrose, or California rose, is a species of rose native to the U.S. states of California and Oregon and the northern part of Baja California, Mexico. The plant is native to chaparral and woodlands and the Sierra Nevada foothills, and can survive drought, though it grows most abundantly in moist soils near water sources.

<i>Cyrtomium falcatum</i> Species of fern native to Asia

Cyrtomium falcatum is a species of fern, commonly known as house holly-fern and Japanese holly fern, in the wood fern family Dryopteridaceae. It is native to eastern Asia.

<i>Asplenium septentrionale</i> Species of fern in the family Aspleniaceae

Asplenium septentrionale is a species of fern known by the common names northern spleenwort and forked spleenwort. It is native to Europe, Asia and western North America, where it grows on rocks. Its long, slender leaves give it a distinctive appearance. Three subspecies exist, corresponding to a tetraploid and a diploid cytotype and their triploid hybrid.

<i>Cryptogramma acrostichoides</i> Species of fern

Cryptogramma acrostichoides is a fern species in the Cryptogrammoideae subfamily of the Pteridaceae. It is known by the common names American parsley fern and American rockbrake and is native to most of western North America, where it grows in the cracks of rocks in many types of sunny mountainous habitat.

<i>Cryptogramma cascadensis</i> Species of fern

Cryptogramma cascadensis is a species of fern known by the common names Cascade parsley fern and Cascade rockbrake.

<i>Dryopteris intermedia</i> Species of wood fern

Dryopteris intermedia, the intermediate wood fern or evergreen wood fern, is a perennial, evergreen wood fern native to eastern North America. It is a diploid species, and is the parent of several species of hybrid origin, including Dryopteris carthusiana. Other common names for this species include intermediate shield fern, fancy wood fern, fancy fern, glandular wood fern, American shield fern and common wood fern.

<i>Notholaena californica</i> Species of fern

Notholaena californica is a species of fern known by the common name California cloak fern. It is native to southern California and Arizona in the United States, and in adjacent north-western Mexico, where it grows in dry and rocky conditions, often in desert and chaparral habitats.

<i>Achlys triphylla</i> Species of flowering plant

Achlys triphylla, common names sweet after death, deer-foot or vanilla-leaf, is a plant species native to the mountains of the West Coast of North America. It has been reported from the Cascades and from the Coast Ranges in British Columbia, Washington, Oregon and northern California, at elevations of up to 1500 m.

<i>Berberis bealei</i> Species of shrub

Berberis bealei, also known as leatherleaf mahonia, Beale's barberry, or Oregon grape, is a species of evergreen shrub native to mainland China. The species has been regarded as the same species as Berberis japonica, native to Taiwan, but the two differ consistently in certain floral and leaf characters. Both species are widely cultivated in many countries as ornamentals. Berberis bealei has reportedly escaped cultivation and become established in the wild in scattered places in the south-eastern United States from Arkansas to Florida to Delaware.

<i>Helwingia japonica</i> Species of plant

Helwingia japonica, the Japanese helwingia, is a species of Helwingia native to East Asia. Helwingia japonica is part of the genus Helwingia and the family Helwingiaceae.

References

  1. 1 2 3 Gilkey, Helen M. & Dennis, La Rea J. (2001). Handbook of Northwestern Plants. Oregon State University Press. ISBN   0-87071-490-2 p. 161
  2. Gledhill, David (2008). The Names of Plants. Cambridge University. ISBN   9780521866453.
  3. Coombes, Allen J. (2012). The A to Z of plant names : a quick reference guide to 4000 garden plants (1st ed.). Portland, Or.: Timber Press. p. 29. ISBN   978-1-60469-196-2. OCLC   741564356.
  4. 1 2 3 4 5 Pojar & MacKinnon (2004). Plants of the Pacific Northwest Coast (Revised Edition). Lone Pine Publishing. ISBN   1-55105-530-9 p. 312
  5. Biota of North America Program 2013 county distribution map