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Empetrum eamesii atropurpureum

(Elliottia)

Overview

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Threatened

Threat status

Interesting Facts

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Common Names

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Common Names in English:

Elliottia, Georgia Plume, Georgia-Plume, Georgiaplume, Purple Crowberry, Southern Plume

Description

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Family Ericaceae

Plants usually woody, or herbs, sometimes lacking chlorophyll. Leaves spiral , sometimes decussate, margin often toothed . Inflorescence racemose; bracteoles paired , basal. Flowers (4 or) 5-merous. Calyx imbricate. Corolla connate , imbricate. Stamens 10, sometimes with spurs or awns , dehiscing by pores , pollen in tetrads , rarely single. Ovary superior or inferior, placentation axile , rarely parietal , often many ovules per locule. Style ± as long as corolla, slender. Fruit a capsule or berry, rarely a drupe; calyx persistent.

About 125 genera and 4000 species: widely distributed in temperate and subarctic regions, also at high elevations in tropical regions ; 22 genera and 826 species (524 endemic) in China.

The Monotropoideae are here included in the Ericaceae; previously in FRPS (56: 157 216. 1990), they were treated as the Pyrolaceae. Chiogenes, recorded from China in FRPS (57(3) : 69 71. 1991), is here included in Gaultheria. Over the last half century, the Empetraceae have usually been separated from, but closely associated with, the Ericaceae. In their ecology, leaf morphology and insertion , rusts, embryology, stamen anatomy, etc. , they largely agree with that family . Molecular data place Empetrum and its relatives firmly within the Ericaceae, and in particular within the subfamily Ericoideae, in agreement with phytochemical and palynological data, and there they are best recognized as a separate tribe . There are distinctive features of the Empetreae that were responsible for their past familial status, e.g. , reduced perianth with separate members , low ovule number, enlarged stigmas, etc. However, these are likely to be derived features associated with wind pollination. See Kron et al. (Bot. Rev. 68: 335 423. 2002) and the recent treatment of the Ericaceae by Stevens et al. (in Kubitzki, Fam. Gen. Vasc. Pl. 6: 145 194. 2004) .

Several genera and many species are ornamentals . Some fruits of Vaccinium in N China are sweet and edible, but of no particular value to humans. Some species of Chamaedaphne, Craibiodendron, Leucothoë, Lyonia, Pieris, and Rhododendron contain more or less toxic diterpenes, which are harmful to humans or domestic animals.[1]

Genus Empetrum

Two to several species: N temperate regions , South America (Andes), S Atlantic Islands (Falkland Islands, Tristan da Cunha) ; one species in China.

Shrubs evergreen , small or creeping . Leaves densely verticillate , subverticillate, or decussate, sessile, margin entire; stipules absent. Inflorescences axillary on upper part of branchlets , 1 3-flowered; bracts (2 ) 4 or 5(or 6), scalelike. Flowers small, inconspicuous, unisexual (plants monoecious or dioecious) . Sepals 3 6, imbricate in bud, petaloid . Petals absent. Stamens 3( 6), exserted; anthers 2-celled, longitudinally dehiscent . Ovary superior, subglobose, apically depressed , 6 9-loculed; ovules l per locule; style 1, short or indistinct; stigma 6 9( 12) -lobed. Fruit globose or subglobose, drupaceous ; pericarp red, purple, or black when ripe , fleshy . Pyrenes 1 per locule, 1-seeded.[2]

Physical Description

Habit: Tree , Shrub

Biology

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Reproduction

Duration: Perennial

Taxonomy

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Synonyms

Empetrum atropurpureum Fern. & Wieg. • Empetrum nigrum var. atropurpureum (Fern. & Wieg.) Boivin • Empetrum nigrum var. purpureum (Raf.) A. Dc. • Empetrum rubrum var. atropurpureum (Fern. & Wieg.) R. Good

Notes

Name Status: Accepted Name . Latest taxonomic scrutiny: 15-Mar-2000

Place of publication : Sketch bot. S. Carolina 1:448. 1817

Name verified on 02-May-1996 by ARS Systematic Botanists. Last updated: 22-May-1997

Similar Species

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Members of the genus Empetrum

ZipcodeZoo has pages for 9 species, subspecies, varieties, forms, and cultivars in this genus:

E. eamesii (Crowberry) · E. eamesii atropurpureum (Elliottia) · E. eamesii eamesii (Purple Crowberry) · E. eamesii subsp. atropurpureum (Purple Crowberry) · E. nigrum (Black Crowberry) · E. nigrum hermaphroditum (Black Crowberry) · E. nigrum nigrum (Black Crowberry) · E. nigrum 'Compass Harbor' (Black Crowberry) · E. nigrum subsp. hermaphroditum (Black Crowberry)

More Info

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Further Reading

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Notes

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Contributors

Identifiers

Footnotes

  1. Mingyuan Fang, Ruizheng Fang, Mingyou He, Linzheng Hu, Hanbi Yang, Haining Qin, Tianlu Min, David F. Chamberlain, Peter Stevens, Gary D. Wallace & Arne Anderberg "Ericaceae". in Flora of China Vol. 14 Page 242. Published by Science Press (Beijing) and Missouri Botanical Garden Press. Online at EFloras.org. [back]
  2. Mingyuan Fang, Ruizheng Fang, Mingyou He, Linzheng Hu, Hanbi Yang, Haining Qin, Tianlu Min, David F. Chamberlain, Peter Stevens, Gary D. Wallace & Arne Anderberg "Empetrum". in Flora of China Vol. 14 Page 455. Published by Science Press (Beijing) and Missouri Botanical Garden Press. Online at EFloras.org. [back]
Last Revised: 2012-07-27