''Calycanthus'', called sweetshrub, is a genus of

flowering plant Flowering plants are plants that bear flowers and fruits, and form the clade Angiospermae (). The term angiosperm is derived from the Ancient Greek, Greek words (; 'container, vessel') and (; 'seed'), meaning that the seeds are enclosed with ...

s in the family Calycanthaceae. The genus includes two to four species depending on taxonomic interpretation; three are accepted by most 21st century sources.

Description

''Calycanthus'' plants are

deciduous In the fields of horticulture and botany, the term deciduous () means "falling off at maturity" and "tending to fall off", in reference to trees and shrubs that seasonally shed Leaf, leaves, usually in the autumn; to the shedding of petals, aft ...

shrub A shrub or bush is a small to medium-sized perennial woody plant. Unlike herbaceous plants, shrubs have persistent woody stems above the ground. Shrubs can be either deciduous or evergreen. They are distinguished from trees by their multiple ...

s, growing to tall. The

leaves A leaf (: leaves) is a principal appendage of the stem of a vascular plant, usually borne laterally above ground and specialized for photosynthesis. Leaves are collectively called foliage, as in "autumn foliage", while the leaves, stem, ...

are

opposite In lexical semantics, opposites are words lying in an inherently incompatible binary relationship. For example, something that is ''even'' entails that it is not ''odd''. It is referred to as a 'binary' relationship because there are two members i ...

and undivided. The plants are aromatic. The

flower Flowers, also known as blooms and blossoms, are the reproductive structures of flowering plants ( angiosperms). Typically, they are structured in four circular levels, called whorls, around the end of a stalk. These whorls include: calyx, m ...

s are typical of the family Calycanthaceae in lacking distinct sepals and petals, but instead having spirals of

tepal A tepal is one of the outer parts of a flower (collectively the perianth). The term is used when these parts cannot easily be classified as either sepals or petals. This may be because the parts of the perianth are undifferentiated (i.e. of very ...

s. Flowers are produced from spring onwards, until October in the case of '' C. occidentalis''. The flowers of the two North American species are scented, across, with numerous dark red to burgundy to purplish brown tepals. '' C. chinensis'' has broader tepals, the outer ones white flushed with pink, the inner ones mostly yellow with purple marks at the base. The

fruit In botany, a fruit is the seed-bearing structure in flowering plants (angiosperms) that is formed from the ovary after flowering. Fruits are the means by which angiosperms disseminate their seeds. Edible fruits in particular have long propaga ...

is an elliptical dry capsule, containing numerous

seed In botany, a seed is a plant structure containing an embryo and stored nutrients in a protective coat called a ''testa''. More generally, the term "seed" means anything that can be Sowing, sown, which may include seed and husk or tuber. Seeds ...

s. ''C. floridus'' and ''C. occidentalis'' are pollinated by beetles. Their flowers produce small protein-rich growths that feed beetle pollinators. ''C. occidentalis'' has been shown to produce chemicals that mimic fermenting fruits that attract beetles in the families

Nitidulidae The sap beetles, also known as Nitidulidae, are a family of beetles. They are small (2–6 mm) ovoid, usually dull-coloured beetles, with knobbed antennae. Some have red or yellow spots or bands. They feed mainly on decaying vegetable ma ...

and

Staphylinidae The rove beetles are a family (biology), family (Staphylinidae) of beetles, primarily distinguished by their short elytra (wing covers) that typically leave more than half of their abdominal segments exposed. With over 66,000 species in thousand ...

Taxonomy

The genus ''Calycanthus'' was created by

Carl Linnaeus Carl Linnaeus (23 May 1707 – 10 January 1778), also known after ennoblement in 1761 as Carl von Linné,#Blunt, Blunt (2004), p. 171. was a Swedish biologist and physician who formalised binomial nomenclature, the modern system of naming o ...

in 1759, with the sole species ''Calycanthus floridus''. In 1762, he added ''Calycanthus praecox'', now treated as '' Chimonanthus praecox''.

Phylogeny and evolution

A 2006

molecular phylogenetic Molecular phylogenetics () is the branch of phylogeny that analyzes genetic, hereditary molecular differences, predominantly in DNA sequences, to gain information on an organism's evolutionary relationships. From these analyses, it is possible to ...

study of the family Calycanthaceae found that the three widely recognized species of ''Calycanthus'' formed a

monophyletic In biological cladistics for the classification of organisms, monophyly is the condition of a taxonomic grouping being a clade – that is, a grouping of organisms which meets these criteria: # the grouping contains its own most recent co ...

group. Relationships among the three species differed depending on whether

chloroplast A chloroplast () is a type of membrane-bound organelle, organelle known as a plastid that conducts photosynthesis mostly in plant cell, plant and algae, algal cells. Chloroplasts have a high concentration of chlorophyll pigments which captur ...

nuclear Nuclear may refer to: Physics Relating to the nucleus of the atom: *Nuclear engineering *Nuclear physics *Nuclear power *Nuclear reactor *Nuclear weapon *Nuclear medicine *Radiation therapy *Nuclear warfare Mathematics * Nuclear space *Nuclear ...

data was used. A cladogram obtained by combining the two is shown below. The family Calycanthaceae may have had a

Gondwana Gondwana ( ; ) was a large landmass, sometimes referred to as a supercontinent. The remnants of Gondwana make up around two-thirds of today's continental area, including South America, Africa, Antarctica, Australia (continent), Australia, Zea ...

n origin. The sole Australian representative, '' Idiospermum australiense'', would then represent an ancient relic, probably having diverged in the

Cretaceous The Cretaceous ( ) is a geological period that lasted from about 143.1 to 66 mya (unit), million years ago (Mya). It is the third and final period of the Mesozoic Era (geology), Era, as well as the longest. At around 77.1 million years, it is the ...

. There are no

extant Extant or Least-concern species, least concern is the opposite of the word extinct. It may refer to: * Extant hereditary titles * Extant literature, surviving literature, such as ''Beowulf'', the oldest extant manuscript written in English * Exta ...

South American members of the family, although fossils are known. ''Calycanthus'' may have migrated into North America from eastern Asia, or may have originated in South America, moved northwards and then spread to eastern Asia.

Species

Plants of the World Online Plants of the World Online (POWO) is an online taxonomic database published by the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew. History Following the Convention on Biological Diversity, the Royal Botanic Gardens in Kew launched Plants of the World Online i ...

accepted four species: * ''Calycanthus brockianus'' Ferry & Ferry f.—north central Georgia; has greenish rather than brownish red flowers, and may only be a triploid color variant of ''C. floridus''. * '' Calycanthus chinensis'' (W.C.Cheng & S.Y.Chang) W.C.Cheng & S.Y.Chang ex P.T.Li (syn. ''Sinocalycanthus sinensis'')—Chinese sweetshrub, Chinese wax shrub, native to eastern China, with white flowers * '' Calycanthus floridus'' L.—Carolina spicebush, eastern sweetshrub, native to the

Eastern United States The Eastern United States, often abbreviated as simply the East, is a macroregion of the United States located to the east of the Mississippi River. It includes 17–26 states and Washington, D.C., the national capital. As of 2011, the Eastern ...

, from

New York New York most commonly refers to: * New York (state), a state in the northeastern United States * New York City, the most populous city in the United States, located in the state of New York New York may also refer to: Places United Kingdom * ...

and

Missouri Missouri (''see #Etymology and pronunciation, pronunciation'') is a U.S. state, state in the Midwestern United States, Midwestern region of the United States. Ranking List of U.S. states and territories by area, 21st in land area, it border ...

, south through the

Appalachian Mountains The Appalachian Mountains, often called the Appalachians, are a mountain range in eastern to northeastern North America. The term "Appalachian" refers to several different regions associated with the mountain range, and its surrounding terrain ...

Piedmont Piedmont ( ; ; ) is one of the 20 regions of Italy, located in the northwest Italy, Northwest of the country. It borders the Liguria region to the south, the Lombardy and Emilia-Romagna regions to the east, and the Aosta Valley region to the ...

, and Mississippi Valley, to

Louisiana Louisiana ( ; ; ) is a state in the Deep South and South Central regions of the United States. It borders Texas to the west, Arkansas to the north, and Mississippi to the east. Of the 50 U.S. states, it ranks 31st in area and 25 ...

, and east to northern

Florida Florida ( ; ) is a U.S. state, state in the Southeastern United States, Southeastern region of the United States. It borders the Gulf of Mexico to the west, Alabama to the northwest, Georgia (U.S. state), Georgia to the north, the Atlantic ...

** ''C. f.'' var. ''floridus'' ( syn. ''C. mohrii'')—eastern sweetshrub; twigs pubescent (hairy) ** ''C. f.'' var. ''glaucus'' (syn. ''C. fertilis'')—eastern sweetshrub; twigs glabrous (smooth). * '' Calycanthus occidentalis'' Hook. & Arn.—California spicebush, western sweetshrub, native to moist habitats of

California California () is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States that lies on the West Coast of the United States, Pacific Coast. It borders Oregon to the north, Nevada and Arizona to the east, and shares Mexico–United States border, an ...

below , including in the

California Coast Ranges The Coast Ranges of California span from Del Norte County, California, Del Norte or Humboldt County, California, south to Santa Barbara County, California, Santa Barbara County. The other three coastal California mountain ranges are the Trans ...

San Joaquin Valley The San Joaquin Valley ( ; Spanish language in California, Spanish: ''Valle de San Joaquín'') is the southern half of California's Central Valley (California), Central Valley. Famed as a major breadbasket, the San Joaquin Valley is an importa ...

, and

Sierra Nevada The Sierra Nevada ( ) is a mountain range in the Western United States, between the Central Valley of California and the Great Basin. The vast majority of the range lies in the state of California, although the Carson Range spur lies primari ...

. , the Oregon Flora Project documented two specimens in

Oregon Oregon ( , ) is a U.S. state, state in the Pacific Northwest region of the United States. It is a part of the Western U.S., with the Columbia River delineating much of Oregon's northern boundary with Washington (state), Washington, while t ...

, marked as "exotic?". ''C. chinensis'' has a confused taxonomic history. It was first described in 1963 as ''Calycanthus chinensis'' by W.C. Cheng and S.Y. Chang, but invalidly because two different collections were both given as

holotype A holotype (Latin: ''holotypus'') is a single physical example (or illustration) of an organism used when the species (or lower-ranked taxon) was formally described. It is either the single such physical example (or illustration) or one of s ...

s. The authors then described it validly in 1964 in their new genus ''Sinocalycanthus''. In 1979, P.T. Li rejected the genus ''Sinocalycanthus'', and validated the original name ''Calycanthus chinensis''. Calycanthus chinensis 2020-06-23 9533.jpg, ''C. chinensis''–Chinese sweetshrub Calycanthus floridus kz01.jpg, ''C. floridus''—eastern sweetshrub Calycanthus occidentalis-Chico.jpg, ''C. occidentalis''—western sweetshrub

Cultivation

''Calycanthus'' species are cultivated as

ornamental plant Ornamental plants or ''garden plants'' are plants that are primarily grown for their beauty but also for qualities such as scent or how they shape physical space. Many flowering plants and garden varieties tend to be specially bred cultivars th ...

s by

plant nurseries A nursery is a place where plants are propagated and grown to a desired size. Mostly the plants concerned are for gardening, forestry, or conservation biology, rather than agriculture. They include retail nurseries, which sell to the general ...

, including in the United States and England. ''Calycanthus floridus'' is planted in gardens, as a specimen shrub, or for hedges. The English naturalist

Mark Catesby Mark Catesby (24 March 1683 – 23 December 1749) was an English natural history, naturalist who studied the flora and fauna of the New World. Between 1729 and 1747, Catesby published his ''Natural History of Carolina, Florida and the Bahama ...

drew it as the support for the bird he called "''Garrulus Carolinensis'' The Chatterer" (now '' Bombycilla cedrorum'') in a work published from 1731 onwards. He described the shrub as growing in "remote and hilly parts" and having bark "as odoriferous as cinnamon". The colonial planters of

the Carolinas The Carolinas, also known simply as Carolina, are the U.S. states of North Carolina and South Carolina considered collectively. They are bordered by Virginia to the north, Tennessee to the west, and Georgia to the southwest. The Atlantic Ocean ...

transplanted it into their gardens, and the botanist Peter Collinson described it to

Linnaeus Carl Linnaeus (23 May 1707 – 10 January 1778), also known after ennoblement in 1761 as Carl von Linné,#Blunt, Blunt (2004), p. 171. was a Swedish biologist and physician who formalised binomial nomenclature, the modern system of naming o ...

and imported it into England from Charleston in the

Province of South Carolina The Province of South Carolina, originally known as Clarendon Province, was a province of the Kingdom of Great Britain that existed in North America from 1712 to 1776. It was one of the five Southern colonies and one of the Thirteen Colonies i ...

around 1756. ''Calycanthus occidentalis'' is planted in traditional,

native plant In biogeography, a native species is indigenous to a given region or ecosystem if its presence in that region is the result of only local natural evolution (though often popularised as "with no human intervention") during history. The term is equi ...

, and

wildlife garden A wildlife garden (or habitat garden or backyard restoration) is an Biophysical environment, environment created with the purpose to serve as a sustainable haven for surrounding wildlife. Wildlife gardens contain a variety of habitats that cater t ...

s, and for

natural landscaping Natural landscaping, also called native gardening, is the use of native plants including trees, shrubs, groundcover, and grasses which are local to the geographic area of the garden. Benefits Maintenance Natural landscaping is adapted to t ...

and

habitat restoration Ecological restoration, or ecosystem restoration, is the process of assisting the recovery of an ecosystem that has been degraded, damaged, destroyed or transformed. It is distinct from conservation in that it attempts to retroactively repair ...

projects, primarily in California and the Western United States. It was introduced into cultivation in 1831. ''Calycanthus chinensis'' was introduced into cultivation in both the United States and the United Kingdom from the Shanghai Botanical Garden in the 1980s. It has since been used extensively in the breeding of

cultivar A cultivar is a kind of Horticulture, cultivated plant that people have selected for desired phenotypic trait, traits and which retains those traits when Plant propagation, propagated. Methods used to propagate cultivars include division, root a ...

Hybridization

Several hybrids and hybrid cultivars have been produced, with the intention of combining the larger flower size of ''C. chinensis'' with the colour and scent of the two North American species, as well as their greater hardiness. The hybrid between ''C. chinensis'' and ''C. floridus'' has been named ''C.'' × ''raulstonii''. It combines the larger flowers of ''C. chinesis'' with the flower color of ''C. floridus''. The original cross has been given the cultivar name 'Hartlage Wine' after the student, Richard Hartlage, who made the first crosses. Further crosses have been made. 'Venus' involves ''C. occidentalis'' as well. Hybrid cultivars include: *'Aphrodite' (''C. chinensis'' × ''C. occidentalis'') – US; large reddish-purple flowers with yellow marks on the inner tepals, borne on relatively long stalks; long flowering season *'Hartlage Wine' (''C.'' × ''raulstonii'') – US, 1991; resembles ''C. chinensis'' in leaf and flower size, with the flower colour of ''C. floridus''; may reach in height; given the

Royal Horticultural Society The Royal Horticultural Society (RHS), founded in 1804 as the Horticultural Society of London, is the UK's leading gardening charity. The RHS promotes horticulture through its five gardens at Wisley (Surrey), Hyde Hall (Essex), Harlow Carr ...

Award of Garden Merit The Award of Garden Merit (AGM) is a long-established award for plants by the British Royal Horticultural Society (RHS). It is based on assessment of the plants' performance under UK growing conditions. It includes the full range of cultivated p ...

*'Hongyun' (''C.'' × ''raulstonii'') – China, 2001; large flowers of ''C. chinensis'' with the red colour of ''C. floridus'' *'Solar Flare' (''C.'' × ''raulstonii'') – US, 2003–2006; similar to 'Hartlage Wine' but with larger and thicker leaves and smaller flowers; appears to be hardier to frost than 'Hartlage Wine' *'Venus' (''C.'' × ''raulstonii'' × 'C. chinensis'' × ''C. occidentalis'' – large white flowers, marked with yellow and purple at the centre; strongly fragrant Calycanthus 'Aphrodite', Longwood Gardens 01.jpg, Calycanthus 'Aphrodite' Calycanthus raulstonii 'Hartlage Wine', Morris Arboretum 01.jpg, Calycanthus × raulstonii 'Hartlage Wine' X Sinocalycalycanthus Venus - Flickr - peganum (3).jpg, Calycanthus 'Venus'

Other uses

''Calycanthus floridus'' and ''C. occidentalis'' were both used as a traditional

medicinal plant Medicinal plants, also called medicinal herbs, have been discovered and used in traditional medicine practices since prehistoric times. Plants synthesize hundreds of chemical compounds for various functions, including Plant defense against h ...

by Native Americans. The

indigenous peoples of California Indigenous peoples of California, commonly known as Indigenous Californians or Native Californians, are a diverse group of nations and peoples that are indigenous to the geographic area within the current boundaries of California before and afte ...

also used ''C. occidentalis'' in basketweaving and for arrow shafts.

Essential oils

Calycanthus oil, distilled from the flowers, is an

essential oil An essential oil is a concentrated hydrophobic liquid containing volatile (easily evaporated at normal temperatures) chemical compounds from plants. Essential oils are also known as volatile oils, ethereal oils, aetheroleum, or simply as the ...

used in some quality perfumes.Groom, N.
The New Perfume Handbook
second ed., Springer, 1997, page 48.

References

External links

CalFlora Database: ''Calycanthus occidentalis'' (spicebush, western sweetshrub)

UC Photos gallery: ''Calycanthus floridus''

UC Berkeley Cal Photos gallery: ''Calycanthus occidentalis''
{{Taxonbar, from=Q158029 Flora of the Eastern United States Flora of the West Coast of the United States Garden plants of North America Laurales genera Plants used in traditional Native American medicine Calycanthaceae