Melanthium racemosum

• Interesting Facts
• Description
• Taxonomy
• Similar Species
• More Info
• Further Reading
• Notes

Interesting Facts

Description

Genus Melanthium

Herbs, perennial , subscapose , from erect , tunicate bulbs with short, vertical rhizomes; fibrils persistent , brown, stiff; roots contractile, fleshy . Stems erect, simple , leafy, hollow, basally thickened. Leaves basal, simple, reduced upwards, bases sheathing ; blade linear , oblanceolate , elliptic to obovate , rarely plicate , glabrous , basally canaliculate , apex tapered to acute; sheaths tubular , closed . Inflorescences terminal , compound-racemose to open-paniculate, flexible , axes floccose ; bracts clasping , linear to subulate . Flowers of distal racemes bisexual , progressively smaller distally, proximal flowers staminate ; tepals persistent, 6, spreading , distinct to weakly connate basally, slightly adnate to ovary base, petaloid , gradually to abruptly narrowed into claws or claws absent, subequal , margin entire or undulate , apex acute to obtuse ; perigonal nectaries obscure to very prominent , 2 per tepal, adaxially basal on either side of midvein ; stamens 6, adnate to tepal bases; filaments strongly incurving; anthers basifixed , 1-locular, cordate-reniform; pollen sacs fugacious , confluent , dehiscence apical/valvate; ovary superior to partly inferior, nearly distinct, 3-locular; sepal nectaries absent; styles persistent, 3, spreading to recurved, turning inwards with age, distinct; stigmas minute; pedicel pubescent . Fruits capsular , deeply 3-lobed, dehiscence septicidal, then adaxially loculicidal; styles persistent, 3, beaklike. Seeds pale yellow to tan, broadly winged , flat, elliptic to lanceolate. x = 8.

Species 4: e North America.

Melanthium, often wholly or partly included in the closely related Veratrum (J. D. Ambrose 1975, 1980; S. M. Kupchan et al. 1961; J. H. Zimmerman 1958; W. B . Zomlefer 1997b; W. B. Zomlefer et al. 2001), is treated here as distinct (N. L. Bodkin 1978; B. Mathew 1989; M. N. Tamura 1998; S. Fuse and M. N. Tamura 2000). The eastern North American species of Melanthium differ from Veratrum primarily in their open inflorescences, which appear delicate and flexible; glabrous leaves; clawed tepals with two distinct, nonmarginal glands on either side of the midrib ; and incurving, fugacious stamens adnate to the tepals (N. L. Bodkin 1978).

Resolution of the problematical Melanthium-Veratrum species series will require full molecular and phylogenetic analysis of the group, especially of the narrow-leaved Asian Veratrum, several of which approximate Melanthium, such as V. mengtzeanum Loesener, V. micranthum Wang & Tang , V. stenophyllum Diels , and V. taliense Loesener f. (B. Mathew 1989). In eastern North America, an ecological replacement gradient occurs within the genus. Melanthium virginicum occurs mostly in wet habitats at lower elevations , while the Appalachian M. latifolium and the Ozark M. woodii commonly grow on mesic slopes , and M. parviflorum is most frequently found on or near mountain crests . Species of Melanthium should be considered poisonous, since complex alkaloids derived from steroidal precursors, similar to those in Veratrum, are present (S. M. Kupchan et al. 1961; R. Hegnauer 1962+, vol. 2; R. M. T. Dahlgren et al. 1985).[1]

Taxonomy

Synonyms

Sterns & Poggenb. • Tofieldia racemosa (Walter) Britton

Notes

Publishing author : Walter Publication : Fl. Carol. [Walter] 125 1788 [Apr-Jun 1788]

Similar Species

Members of the genus Melanthium

ZipcodeZoo has pages for 4 species, subspecies, varieties, forms, and cultivars in this genus:

M. latifolium (Broadleaf Bunchflower) · M. parviflorum (Appalachian Bunchflower) · M. virginicum (Virginia Bunchflower) · M. woodii (Ozark Bunchflower)

More Info

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Further Reading

• An illustrated flora of the northern United States, Canada and the British possessions, from Newfoundland to the parallel of the southern boundary of Virginia, and from the Atlantic Ocean westward to the 102d meridian, New York, Scribner[c1913] url .
• Annals of the Lyceum of Natural History of New York. New-York: 1824-1876. url p. 137.
• Annual report of the New Jersey State Museum. Trenton, N.J.: MacCrellish & Quigley, url p. 337.
• Botany of the United States north of Virginia; comprising descriptions of the flowering and fern-like plants hitherto found in those states, arranged according to the natural system. With a synopsis of the genera according to the Linnean system, a New York, Harper, 1868. url p. 366.
• Botany of the northern and middle states, or, A description of the plants found in the United States, north of Virginia: arranged according to the natural system: with a synopsis of the genera according to the Linnaean system. .. / Albany: Printed by Webster and Skinners. .., 1833. url p. 367.
• Contributions from the United States National Herbarium 6 1901 Washington, D.C.: Smithsonian Institution Press, 1890- url p. 436.
• Flora Americae Septentrionalis: or, A systematic arrangement and description of the plants of North America. Containing, besides what have been described by preceding authors, many new and rare species, collected during twelve years by Frederick Pursh. .. London: Printed for James Black and son, 1816. url p. 241, p. 246.
• Flora of the southeastern United States; being descriptions of the seed-plants, ferns and fern-allies growing naturally in North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia, Florida, Tennessee, Alabama, Mississippi, Arkansas, Louisiana, and in Oklahom by John Kunkel Small. New York, The author, 1913. url p. 1328.
• List of Pteridophyta and Spermatophyta growing without cultivation in northeastern North America. New York, 1893-1894. url , .
• Memoirs of the Torrey Botanical Club. 5 1893 - 18 Durham, N.C.: Published for the Club by the Seeman Printery, 1889- url p. 109.
• New flora and botany of North America, or A supplemental flora, additional to all the botanical works on North America and the United States. Containing 1000 new or revised species. In four parts. 1. Lexicon and monographs. 2. Neophyton &c. 3. New sylva &c. 4. Neobotanon &c. with introductions, sketches, notes, indexes, &c. Philadelphia[Printed for the author and publisher]1836 url p. 35.
• Phytologia. Bronx Park, New York, H.A. Gleason and H.N. Moldenke, url p. 308.
• Proceedings of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. Boston: Metcalf and Co., 1846-1958 url p. 276, p. 283.
• Proceedings of the Biological Society of Washington. Washington, Biological Society of Washington url p. 64.
• Revision of the North American Liliaceae. Descriptions of some new species of North American plants. [Boston]1879. url p. 276, p. 283.
• Small, J. K. Flora of the southeastern United States;being descriptions of the seed-plants, ferns and fern-allies growing naturally in North Carolina, South Carolin, Georgia, Florida, Tennessee, Alabama, Mississippi, Arkansas, Louisiana and the Indian territory and in Oklahoma and Texas east of the one-hundredth meridian /by John Kunkel Small. .. 1903 New York: The author, 1903. url p. 1328.
• The American midland naturalist. Notre Dame, Ind., University of Notre Dame. url p. 127.
• The Journal of the Linnean Society. Botany. 17 1880 London: the Society: Longman, Green, Longman, Roberts & Green: ||Williams and Norgate, 1865-1968. url p. 450.
• The flora of British India /By J. D. Hooker assisted by various botanists. Published under the authority of the secretary of state for India in council. London: L. Reeve, 1875-97. url p. 357, p. 357.
• The plants of Southern New Jersey with especial reference to the flora of the pine barrens and the geographic distribution of the species. Trenton, N. J., 1911. url .
• Wallich, N. Plantae Asiaticae rariores, or, Descriptions and figures of a select number of unpublished East Indian plants /by N. Wallich. 3 1832 London: Treuttel and Wu?rtz, 1830-32. url p. 38.
• Bodkin, N. L. 1978. A Revision of North American Melanthium L. (Liliaceae). Ph.D. dissertation. University of Maryland.
• Leinfellner, W. 1961. Zur Kenntnis des Monokotyledonen Perigons. III. Die Perigonblatter einiger weiterer Melanthioideen (Melanthium, Zygadenus, Anticlea, Toxicoscordion, Veratrum und Kreysigia). Osterr. Bot. Z. 108: 108210.
• Zimmerman, J. H. 1958. A Monograph of Veratrum. Ph.D. dissertation. University of Wisconsin.

Notes

Contributors

• Brands, S.J. (comp.) 1989-present. The Taxonomicon. Universal Taxonomic Services, Zwaag, The Netherlands. Accessed January 12, 2012.

Identifiers

• Biodiversity Heritage Library NamebankID: 8503361
• Global Biodiversity Information Facility Taxonkey: 15609074
• Globally Unique Identifier: urn:lsid:ipni.org:names:538228-1
• International Plant Names Index (IPNI) ID: 538227-1
• Zipcode Zoo Species Identifier: 1332776

Footnotes

1. Norlyn L. Bodkin & Frederick H. Utech "Melanthium". in Flora of North America Vol. 26 Page 14, 56, 73, 77. Oxford University Press. Online at EFloras.org. [back]

©2004-2012 David Stang. All rights reserved.