Erigenia

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Erigenia
Erigenia bulbosa.jpg
Status TNC G5.svg
Secure  (NatureServe) [1]
Scientific classification OOjs UI icon edit-ltr.svg
Kingdom: Plantae
Clade: Tracheophytes
Clade: Angiosperms
Clade: Eudicots
Clade: Asterids
Order: Apiales
Family: Apiaceae
Subfamily: Apioideae
Tribe: Erigenieae
Rydb.
Genus: Erigenia
Nutt.
Species:
E. bulbosa
Binomial name
Erigenia bulbosa

Erigenia bulbosa, also known as harbinger of spring or pepper and salt, [2] is a flowering perennial plant in the family Apiaceae. E. bulbosa is the only species in the genus Erigenia and tribe Erigenieae. [3] This plant is known as harbinger of spring because it is one of the earliest blooming native wildflowers of rich forests in the mid-latitude United States. Throughout most of its range it blooms from late February through early April. [4]

Contents

Description

It is a small spring ephemeral reaching only 5–15 cm tall when in flower, and slightly larger afterwards. Each spherical bulb gives rise to a single purplish stem, which terminates in an umbel. The flowers have white petals and large dark-reddish anthers. The teardrop shaped petals are 3-4 millimeters long, widely spaced and do not touch each other. As is characteristic of the carrot family, the leaves of this plant are sheathed at the base and pinnately divided into many small sections. [5]

Distribution and habitat

Harbinger of spring is an occasional plant in rich hardwood forests of eastern North America. It is found as far north as central New York and southern Wisconsin, west to the western Ozarks, and south to central Alabama. [6] It is also found in extreme southern Ontario.[ citation needed ]

Ecology

Its typical associates include spring beauty ( Claytonia virginica ) and cut-leaf tooth wort ( Cardamine laciniata ). All of these early spring blooming plants are pollinated by solitary bees, and to a lesser extent, flies and honey bees. E. bulbosa has a small daily accumulation of nectar per flower (7–38 μg sugar/flower), but the presence of numerous, closely arranged, simultaneously blooming flowers in the umbel may increase the overall nectar incentive for the pollinators. [7] The nectar produced by E. bulbosa only contains the sugar fructose. [8]

Erigenia bulbosa does not form vesicular-arbuscular mycorrhizal associations with fungi, in contrast to most plants. [9]

These plants are protected in New York [10] and Wisconsin [11] as state endangered plants.

Uses

The bulb is edible both cooked and raw. [12] The Cherokee were known to chew this plant as medicine for toothaches; it is unknown what parts of plant they chewed. [13] This plant is sometimes used in native wildflower gardens throughout its range.[ citation needed ]

Related Research Articles

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

Apiaceae or Umbelliferae is a family of mostly aromatic flowering plants named after the type genus Apium and commonly known as the celery, carrot or parsley family, or simply as umbellifers. It is the 16th-largest family of flowering plants, with more than 3,800 species in about 446 genera, including such well-known and economically important plants as ajwain, angelica, anise, asafoetida, caraway, carrot, celery, chervil, coriander, cumin, dill, fennel, lovage, cow parsley, parsley, parsnip and sea holly, as well as silphium, a plant whose exact identity is unclear and which may be extinct.

<i>Calypso bulbosa</i> Species of orchid

Calypso is a genus of orchids containing one species, Calypso bulbosa, known as the calypso orchid, fairy slipper or Venus's slipper. It is a perennial member of the orchid family found in undisturbed northern and montane forests. It has a small pink, purple, pinkish-purple, or red flower accented with a white lip, darker purple spottings, and yellow beard. The genus Calypso takes its name from the Greek signifying concealment, as they tend to favor sheltered areas on conifer forest floors. The specific epithet, bulbosa, refers to the bulb-like corms.

<i>Sanguinaria</i> Genus of flowering plants in the poppy family Papaveraceae

Sanguinaria canadensis, bloodroot, is a perennial, herbaceous flowering plant native to eastern North America. It is the only species in the genus Sanguinaria, included in the poppy family Papaveraceae, and is most closely related to Eomecon of eastern Asia.

<i>Silene virginica</i> Species of flowering plant

Silene virginica, the fire pink, is a wildflower in the pink family, Caryophyllaceae. It is known for its distinct brilliant red flowers. Fire pink begins blooming in late spring and continuing throughout the summer. It is sometimes grown in wildflower, shade, and rock gardens.

<i>Toxicoscordion venenosum</i> Western North American flowering plant in the bunchflower family

Toxicoscordion venenosum, with the common names death camas and meadow death camas, is a species of flowering plant in the genus Toxicoscordion, of the Melanthiaceae family. It is named for its well known toxic qualities with its common names and scientific name referencing this. Because its nectar is also poionous, it is mainly pollinated by the death camas miner bee, which specializes collecting the toxic pollen for its young. It is native to western North America from New Mexico to Saskatchewan and west to the Pacific Ocean.

<i>Eryngium yuccifolium</i> Species of flowering plant in the celery family Apiaceae

Eryngium yuccifolium, known as rattlesnake master, button eryngo, and button snake-root, is a perennial herb of the parsley family native to the tallgrass prairies of central and eastern North America. It grows from Minnesota east to Ohio and south to Texas and Florida, including a few spots in Connecticut, New Jersey, Maryland, and Delaware.

<i>Cephalanthera longifolia</i> Species of orchid

Cephalanthera longifolia, the narrow-leaved helleborine, sword-leaved helleborine or long-leaved helleborine, is a rhizomatous herbaceous perennial plant in the family Orchidaceae. It is native to light woodland, and widespread across Europe, Asia and North Africa from Ireland and Morocco to China. This includes the United Kingdom, Iran, Russia, Kazakhstan, Turkey, Algeria, India, Pakistan, Germany, Italy, France, Spain, Portugal and many other countries.

<i>Impatiens capensis</i> Species of flowering plant

Impatiens capensis, the orange jewelweed, common jewelweed, spotted jewelweed, jewelweed, spotted touch-me-not, or orange balsam, is an annual plant in the family Balsaminaceae that is native to North America. It is common in bottomland soils, ditches, and along creeks, often growing side by side with its less common relative, yellow jewelweed.

<i>Viola sororia</i> Species of flowering plant in family Violaceae

Viola sororia, known commonly as the common blue violet, is a short-stemmed herbaceous perennial plant native to eastern North America. It is known by a number of common names, including common meadow violet, purple violet, woolly blue violet, hooded violet, and wood violet.

<i>Erythronium americanum</i> Species of flowering plant

Erythronium americanum, the trout lily, yellow trout lily, fawn lily, yellow adder's-tongue, or yellow dogtooth violet, is a species of perennial, colony forming, spring ephemeral flower native to North America and dwelling in woodland habitats. Within its range it is a very common and widespread species, especially in eastern North America. The common name "trout lily" refers to the appearance of its gray-green leaves mottled with brown or gray, which allegedly resemble the coloring of brook trout.

<i>Impatiens pallida</i> Species of flowering plant

Impatiens pallida, with the common names pale jewelweed, pale touch-me-not, or yellow jewelweed, is a flowering annual plant in the family Balsaminaceae native to Canada and the United States. It grows in moist to wet soils, generally alongside the closely related Impatiens capensis, producing flowers from midsummer through fall.

<i>Calliandra eriophylla</i> Species of legume

Calliandra eriophylla, commonly known as fairy duster, is a low spreading shrub which is native to deserts and arid grasslands in California, Arizona, New Mexico, Texas, and Mexico.

<i>Phlox pilosa</i> Species of flowering plant

Phlox pilosa, the downy phlox or prairie phlox, is an herbaceous plant in the family Polemoniaceae. It is native to eastern North America, where it is found in open areas such as prairies and woodlands.

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

Perideridia is a genus of plants in the family Apiaceae. Plants in this genus are known generally as yampah or yampa. They are native to western North America. Similar in appearance to other plants of the family Apiaceae, they have umbels of white flowers.

<i>Sium suave</i> Species of flowering plant

Sium suave, the water parsnip or hemlock waterparsnip, is a perennial wildflower in the family Apiaceae. It is native to many areas of both Asia and North America. The common name water parsnip is due to its similarity to parsnip and its wetland habitat. The alternate common name hemlock waterparsnip is due to its similarity to the highly poisonous spotted water hemlock.

<i>Viola adunca</i> Species of flowering plant

Viola adunca is a species of violet known by the common names hookedspur violet, early blue violet, sand violet, and western dog violet. It is native to meadows and forests of western North America, Canada, and the northern contiguous United States.

<i>Zizia aurea</i> Species of flowering plant

Zizia aurea is a flowering herbaceous perennial plant of the carrot family Apiaceae. It is native to eastern Canada and the United States, from the eastern Great Plains to the Atlantic Coast. The genus is named for Johann Baptist Ziz, a German botanist. The common name is based on the similarity to alexanders, another member of the carrot family from coastal areas in Europe and Northern Africa.

<i>Osmorhiza longistylis</i> Species of flowering plant

Osmorhiza longistylis, commonly called long-styled sweet-cicely or longstyle sweetroot, is an herbaceous plant in the family Apiaceae. It is native to North America, where it is found from the Rocky Mountains east to the Atlantic Coast, in Canada and the United States. Its natural habitat is in forests with fertile soil, often in areas of loam and dappled sunlight. It can be found in areas of high or average quality natural communities, and does not tolerate intense disturbance.

<i>Asclepias lanceolata</i> Species of plant

Asclepias lanceolata, the fewflower milkweed, is a species of milkweed that is native to the coastal plain of the United States from New Jersey to Florida and Southeast Texas. A. lanceolata is an upright, perennial plant that can grow between 3 and 5 feet tall, with red-orange flowers blooming in the summer months. It can also be referred to as Cedar Hill milkweed, as it was first described by Dr. Eli Ives in the neighborhood of Cedar Hill in New Haven, Connecticut.

<i>Andrena erythronii</i> Species of bee

Andrena erythronii is a species of miner bee native to eastern North America. It is known as the trout lily miner bee and trout lily bee, for its association with trout lilies, flowers in the genus Erythronium. It has also been observed visiting the flowers of other spring ephemerals such as spring beauty (Claytonia), hepatica (Hepatica), and harbinger-of-spring, as well as spring-flowering shrubs and trees: serviceberry (Amelanchier), plum and cherry (Prunus), and willow (Salix).

References

  1. NatureServe (1 March 2024). "Erigenia bulbosa". NatureServe Network Biodiversity Location Data accessed through NatureServe Explorer. Arlington, Virginia: NatureServe. Retrieved 24 March 2024.
  2. Voss, Edward G.; Reznicek, Anton A. (2012-02-08). Field Manual of Michigan Flora. University of Michigan Press. p. 331. ISBN   978-0-472-11811-3 . Retrieved 24 March 2024 via Google Books.
  3. Downie, Stephen R.; Spalik, Krzysztof; Katz-Downie, Deborah S.; Reduron, Jean-Pierre (1 August 2010). "Major clades within Apiaceae subfamily Apioideae as inferred by phylogenetic analysis of nrDNA ITS sequences". Plant Diversity and Evolution. 128 (1): 111–136. doi:10.1127/1869-6155/2010/0128-0005.
  4. "Erigenia bulbosa (Harbinger of Spring): Plant Phenology". iNaturalist.org. Retrieved 2018-10-19.
  5. "Harbinger-of-Spring (Erigenia bulbosa)". www.illinoiswildflowers.info. Retrieved 2022-01-26.
  6. USDA PLANTS Database: Erigenia bulbosa
  7. Dailey, Theresa Bordenkecher; Scott, Peter E. (2006). "Spring nectar sources for solitary bees and flies in a landscape of deciduous forest and agricultural fields: production, variability, and consumption". Journal of the Torrey Botanical Society. 133 (4): 535–547. doi:10.3159/1095-5674(2006)133[535:SNSFSB]2.0.CO;2. JSTOR   20063873. S2CID   83554334.
  8. "Dailey, et al. 2003. Nectar rewards of co-flowering spring herbs in woodlands and adjacent agricultural fields. Abstracts: 87th Annual Meeting of the Ecological Society of America". Archived from the original on 2012-02-06. Retrieved 2007-03-22.
  9. Brent G. DeMars (1996). "Vesicular-arbuscular mycorrhizal status of spring ephemerals in two Ohio forests" (PDF). The Ohio Journal of Science. 96 (4/5): 97–99. hdl:1811/23719.
  10. "193.3 Protected Plants". New York Codes, Rules, and Regulations. Retrieved 21 September 2022.
  11. "Harbinger-of-spring". Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources. Retrieved 21 September 2022.
  12. Plants for a Future Database: E. bulbosa.
  13. Dr. Moermann's Ethnobotanical database: E. bulbosa