| Sweetfern | |
|---|---|
 | |
Scientific classification  | |
| Kingdom: | Plantae |
| Clade: | Tracheophytes |
| Clade: | Angiosperms |
| Clade: | Eudicots |
| Clade: | Rosids |
| Order: | Fagales |
| Family: | Myricaceae |
| Genus: | Comptonia |
| Species: | C. peregrina |
| Binomial name | |
| Comptonia peregrina | |
| Synonyms [2] [3] [4] | |
| |
Comptonia peregrina is a species of flowering plant in the family Myricaceae native to eastern North America. It is the only extant (living) species in the genus Comptonia , [5] although a number of extinct species are placed in the genus.
The common name is sweetfern or sweet-fern (although it is not a fern), or in Quebec, comptonie voyageuse. [3] The genus Comptonia is named in honor of Rev. Henry Compton (1632-1713), bishop of Oxford.
The species name peregrina literally means one that travels. Compare the plant's Quebec French name, comptonie voyageuse: "traveling comptonia."
The species was first described, as Liquidambar peregrina, by Carl Linnaeus in 1753, in the second volume of Species Plantarum . Further on in the same volume, he described Myrica aspleniifolia as a different species (with the epithet spelt asplenifolia [note 1] ). In 1763, he changed his mind concerning Myrica aspleniifolia, and it became Liquidambar aspleniifolia, and so in the same genus as Liquidambar peregrina. [6]
In 1789, Charles Louis L'Héritier placed Linnaeus's original Myrica aspleniifolia in his new genus Comptonia. [7]
In 1894, John M. Coulter transferred Linnaeus's Liquidambar peregrina to Comptonia, and treated Linnaeus's Myrica aspleniifolia as a synonym. [6] Comptonia peregrina is now the only extant (living) species in the genus. [5]
Comptonia peregrina is a deciduous shrub, growing to 1.5 m (4.9 ft) tall. The leaves of the plant are linear to lanceolate, 3–15 cm (1.2–5.9 in) long and 0.3–3 cm (0.1–1.2 in) broad, with a lobed margin; they give off a sweet odor, especially when crushed. Plants are monoecious with separate unisexual flowers. The staminate flowers grow in clusters at the ends of branches, and are up to 5 cm (2.0 in) long. The pistillate flowers are only 5 mm (0.2 in), but elongate when the fruits form, reaching 5 cm (2.0 in). [3]
Comptonia peregrina is native to eastern North America, from the Canadian provinces of Ontario and Quebec in the north, east to Nova Scotia, to extreme northern Georgia in the south, and west to Minnesota. [2] It tends to grow on dry sandy sites, and is associated with pine stands. [3]
Comptonia peregrina is used as a food plant by the larvae of some Lepidoptera species, including Bucculatrix paroptila , grey pug, setaceous Hebrew character, Io moth, and several Coleophora case-bearers: C. comptoniella , C. peregrinaevorella (which feeds exclusively on Comptonia), C. persimplexella , C. pruniella and C. serratella . It is also a non-legume nitrogen fixer, improving the fertility of the dry soils in which it establishes.
The plant produces a bristly burr that contains 1 to 4 edible nutlets. [8]
The aromatic leaves (fresh or dried) are also used to make a tea. The Canadian author Catharine Parr Traill includes it in her book The Female Emigrant's Guide in a list of substitutes for China tea. "When boiled," she notes, "it has a slightly resinous taste, with a bitter flavour, that is not very unpleasant." Mistaking it, like others, for a fern, she says that it is in high repute "among the Yankee and old Canadian housewifes (sic)." [9] Tea made from the plant has been said to treat the effects of poison ivy when applied to the affected area. [10] The plant has also been used as a seasoning. [11]
Chives, scientific name Allium schoenoprasum, is a species of flowering plant in the family Amaryllidaceae that produces edible leaves and flowers. Their close relatives include the common onions, garlic, shallot, leek, scallion, and Chinese onion.
The Fagales are an order of flowering plants, including some of the best-known trees. The order name is derived from genus Fagus, beeches. They belong among the rosid group of dicotyledons. The families and genera currently included are as follows:
Rhamnus is a genus of about 140 accepted species of shrubs or small trees, commonly known as buckthorns, in the family Rhamnaceae. Its species range from 1 to 10 m tall and are native mainly in east Asia and North America, but found throughout the temperate and subtropical Northern Hemisphere, and also more locally in the subtropical Southern Hemisphere in parts of Africa and South America. One species, the common buckthorn, is able to flourish as an invasive plant in parts of Canada and the U.S., where it has become naturalized.
Dysphania ambrosioides, formerly Chenopodium ambrosioides, known as Jesuit's tea, Mexican-tea, payqu(paico), epazote, mastruz, or herba sanctæ Mariæ, is an annual or short-lived perennial herb native to Central America, South America, and southern Mexico.
Myrica is a genus of about 35–50 species of small trees and shrubs in the family Myricaceae, order Fagales. The genus has a wide distribution, including Africa, Asia, Europe, North America, and South America, and missing only from Antarctica and Oceania. Some botanists split the genus into two genera on the basis of the catkin and fruit structure, restricting Myrica to a few species, and treating the others in Morella.
Myricaceae is a small family of dicotyledonous shrubs and small trees in the order Fagales with its type genus Myrica, the sweet gales. There are three genera in the family, although some botanists separate many species from Myrica into a fourth genus Morella. About 55 species are usually accepted in Myrica, one in Canacomyrica, and one in Comptonia.
Comptonia is a genus of flowering plants in the family Myricaceae, native to parts of eastern North America. It has one extant (living) species, sweet fern, Comptonia peregrina, and a number of extinct species.
Myrica rubra, also called yangmei, yamamomo, Chinese bayberry, red bayberry, yumberry, waxberry, or Chinese strawberry is a subtropical tree grown for its fruit.
Claytosmunda is a genus of fern. It has only one extant species, Claytosmunda claytoniana, the interrupted fern, native to Eastern Asia, Eastern United States, and Eastern Canada.
Asparagus aethiopicus, Sprenger's asparagus, is a plant native to the Cape Provinces and the Northern Provinces of South Africa. Often used as an ornamental plant, it is considered an invasive weed in many locations. Asparagus fern, asparagus grass and foxtail fern are common names; however, it is unrelated to true ferns. A. aethiopicus has been confused with A. densiflorus, now regarded as a separate species, so that information about A. aethiopicus will often be found under the name A. densiflorus.
Asplenium rhizophyllum, the (American) walking fern, is a frequently-occurring fern native to North America. It is a close relative of Asplenium ruprechtii which is found in East Asia and also goes by the common name of "walking fern".
Ionactis linariifolia also known as the flax-leaf ankle-aster, flaxleaf whitetop or simply aster is a North American species of plants in the family Asteraceae.
Cheiroglossa palmata, synonyms Ophioderma palmatum and Ophioglossum palmatum, variously known as hand fern, dwarf staghorn, or hand tongue, is an epiphytic or terrestrial fern. As an epiphyte it grows in old leaf bases of the cabbage palmetto.
Acleris kearfottana is a species of moth of the family Tortricidae. It is found in North America, where it has been recorded from Maine, Ontario, Pennsylvania, Quebec and West Virginia.
This fossil flora in Turkey stems from at least six Pliocene deposits in Güvem and Beşkonak villages, 80 kilometres (50 mi) north of Ankara, 22 kilometres (14 mi) north of Kızılcahamam and 125 kilometres (78 mi) south of the Black Sea coast. They are 1,000 metres (3,300 ft) to 1,500 metres (4,900 ft) above sea level, extending 15 kilometres (9.3 mi) north-south and 7 kilometres (4.3 mi) east-west. Between six and seven million years ago, a fresh water lake existed there in a forested area with mostly broad leaved deciduous tree species, dominated by sequoia and oak.
Oxypolis is a small genus of North American flowering plants in the carrot family known as cowbane, water dropwort, dropwort, hog-fennel, and pig-potato. As of 2020, Kew's Plants of the World Online accepts four species in the genus Oxypolis:
Comptonia columbiana is an extinct species of sweet fern in the flowering plant family Myricaceae. The species is known from fossil leaves found in the early Eocene deposits of central to southern British Columbia, Canada, plus northern Washington state, United States, and, tentatively, the late Eocene of Southern Idaho and Earliest Oligocene of Oregon, United States.
Lomatium orientale, commonly known as salt-and-pepper, eastern cous, eastern desert-parsley, eastern lomatium, white-flowered desert-parsley, oriental desert parsley or Northern Idaho biscuitroot, is a small spring blooming ephemeral plant. It grows in open habitats from the plains to foothills in western North America. It is known as one of the earliest blooming native flowers in its habitat. The species name, "orientale", is botanical Latin meaning "eastern".
Aspilanta argentifera is a species of moth in the family Heliozelidae, first described by Annette Frances Braun in 1927. It is found in eastern North America. The larvae are leaf miners that feed on several species of plant in the family Myricaceae.
