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Herbs, perennial, terrestrial or aquatic, 1-12.5 dm, from rhizomes. Rhizomes persistent, sympodial, spreading and filiform, or densely clumped, cylindrical, and fleshy. Stems simple, arching or erect. Leaves 2-15, cauline, distichous, clasping or short-petiolate; blade usually ovate, glabrous or weakly pubescent, base rounded or cordiform, margins flat or undulate, denticulate or entire, apex acute or caudate. Inflorescences terminally paniculate or racemose, 5-250-flowered. Flowers 3-merous (6 tepals, 6 stamens) or, by reduction, 2-merous (4 tepals, 4 stamens) ; perianth spreading; tepals distinct, white, ovate or triangular, equal, 0.5-5 mm; stamens inserted at tepal base; anthers 4-locular, dehiscence introrse; ovary superior, 2-3-carpellate, septal walls with nectariferous canals; style shorter than 1.5 mm; stigma 2-3-lobed, less than 1 mm wide; pedicel subtended by 1 or more bracts. Fruits baccate, variously mottled when immature, bright red at maturity, usually lobed, 4-12 mm wide, pulp thin. Seeds 1-12, globose, 3-6 mm diam.; testa pale brown, thin; endosperm scaly. x = 18.

Species 30: North America, Central America, n Europe, e Asia to the Himalayas.

Outside the flora area, Maianthemum may be epiphytic, with foliage stems pendent or erect; two species are dioecious; tepals may be fused, the perianth campanulate; and tepals and anthers may be pink, green, or violet.

The two species of Maianthemum that bear 4-tepaled flowers, M. canadense and M. dilatatum, are very similar to one another and to the boreal Eurasian species M. bifolium (Linnaeus) F. W. Schmidt, and the three have sometimes been considered varieties of a single species. In most recent floristic works, the genus Maianthemum has been limited to these three species because of their reduced flowers, whereas the remaining species, which bear 6-tepaled flowers more typical of the Liliaceae, have been placed in the genus Smilacina. J. V. LaFrankie (1986) placed all the species in a single genus. The monophyly of Maianthemum sensu lato is supported by morphological consistencies including baccate fruits that are marked when immature, a consistent and unique karyotype (S. Kawano and H. H. Iltis 1966; S. Kawano et al. 1967; N. H. Valentine and H. M. Hassan 1971; M. N. Tamura 1995), and molecular analysis (P. J. Rudall et al. 2000; J. Yamashita and M. N. Tamura 2000). The 2-merous floral condition in Maianthemum sensu stricto is the result of anatomical reduction from the 3-merous state (F. H. Utech and S. Kawano 1976).^[1]

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Taxonomy

Bibliography

• Kawano, S., M. Suzuki and S. Kojima. 1971. Biosystematic studies on Maianthemum (Liliaceae-Polygonateae [sic]). V. Variation in gross morphology, karyology and ecology of North American populations of M. dilatatum sensu lato. Bot. Mag. (Tokyo) 84: 299-318.
• Kawano, S. and H. H. Iltis. 1966. Cytotaxonomy of the genus Smilacina. II. Chromosome morphology and evolutionary consideration of the New World species. Cytologia 31: 12-28.
• Kawano, S. and M. Suzuki. 1971. Biosystematic studies on Maianthemum (Liliaceae-Polygonateae [sic]). VI. Variation in gross morphology of M. bifolium and M. canadense with special reference to their taxonomic status. Bot. Mag. (Tokyo) 84: 349-361.
• Kawano, S., M. Ihara, M. Suzuki, and H. H. Iltis. 1967. Biosystematic studies on Maianthemum (Liliaceae). I. Somatic chromosome number and morphology. Bot. Mag. (Tokyo) 80: 345-352.
• Kawano, S., M. Ihara, and M. Suzuki. 1968b. Biosystematic studies on Maianthemum (Liliaceae-Polygonateae [sic]). IV. Variation in gross morphology of M. kamtschaticum. Bot. Mag. (Tokyo) 81: 473-490.
• Kawano, S., M. Ihara, and M. Suzuki. 1968. Biosystematic studies on Maianthemum (Liliaceae-Polygonateae [sic]). II. Geography and ecological life history. Jap. J. Bot. 20: 35-65.
• LaFrankie, J. V. 1984. Anatomy of stem abcission in the genus Smilacina (Liliaceae). J. Arnold Arbor. 65: 563-570.
• LaFrankie, J. V. 1986. Transfer of the species of Smilacina Desf. to Maianthemum Wiggers (Liliaceae). Taxon 35: 584-589.
• LaFrankie, J. V. 1986b. Morphology and taxonomy of the New World species of Maianthemum (Liliaceae). J. Arnold Arbor. 67: 371-439.
• Takahashi, M. and K. Sohma. 1983. Pollen morphology of the genus Smilacina (Liliaceae). Sci. Rep. Tohoku Imp. Univ., Ser. 4, Biol. 38: 191-218.
• Utech, F. H. and S. Kawano. 1976. Biosystematic studies on Maianthemum (Liliaceae). VIII. Floral anatomy of M. dilatatum, M. bifolium, M. canadense. Bot. Mag. (Tokyo) 89: 145-157.
• Valentine, D. H. and H. M. Hassan. 1971. Cytotaxonomy of the genus Maianthemum. J. Indian Bot. Soc. 50: 437-446.

Footnotes

1. James V. LaFrankie "Maianthemum". in Flora of North America Vol. 26 Page 19, 57, 206, 207. Oxford University Press. Online at EFloras.org.

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