Lachnanthes
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''Lachnanthes'' is a genus of
monocot Monocotyledons (), commonly referred to as monocots, (Lilianae ''sensu'' Chase & Reveal) are flowering plants whose seeds contain only one Embryo#Plant embryos, embryonic leaf, or cotyledon. A monocot taxon has been in use for several decades, but ...
yledonous plants in the bloodwort family containing only one species, i.e., ''Lachnanthes caroliana'' (''caroliniana''), commonly known as Carolina redroot or bloodroot. The plant is native to eastern
North America North America is a continent in the Northern Hemisphere, Northern and Western Hemisphere, Western hemispheres. North America is bordered to the north by the Arctic Ocean, to the east by the Atlantic Ocean, to the southeast by South Ameri ...
, from southeastern
Nova Scotia Nova Scotia is a Provinces and territories of Canada, province of Canada, located on its east coast. It is one of the three Maritime Canada, Maritime provinces and Population of Canada by province and territory, most populous province in Atlan ...
(especially the Molega Lake area) and
Massachusetts Massachusetts ( ; ), officially the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, is a U.S. state, state in the New England region of the Northeastern United States. It borders the Atlantic Ocean and the Gulf of Maine to its east, Connecticut and Rhode ...
in the north, south to
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 ...
and
Cuba Cuba, officially the Republic of Cuba, is an island country, comprising the island of Cuba (largest island), Isla de la Juventud, and List of islands of Cuba, 4,195 islands, islets and cays surrounding the main island. It is located where the ...
, and west along the
Gulf of Mexico The Gulf of Mexico () is an oceanic basin and a marginal sea of the Atlantic Ocean, mostly surrounded by the North American continent. It is bounded on the northeast, north, and northwest by the Gulf Coast of the United States; on the southw ...
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 ...
. It has also been reported from an island in the western
Caribbean The Caribbean ( , ; ; ; ) is a region in the middle of the Americas centered around the Caribbean Sea in the Atlantic Ocean, North Atlantic Ocean, mostly overlapping with the West Indies. Bordered by North America to the north, Central America ...
off the coast of
Honduras Honduras, officially the Republic of Honduras, is a country in Central America. It is bordered to the west by Guatemala, to the southwest by El Salvador, to the southeast by Nicaragua, to the south by the Pacific Ocean at the Gulf of Fonseca, ...
. It prefers wet, acidic, usually sandy soils, restricting it to various wetland habitats such as bogs, pinelands,
hammock A hammock, from Spanish , borrowed from Taíno language, Taíno and Arawak language, Arawak , is a sling made of fabric, rope, or netting, suspended between two or more points, used for swing (seat), swinging, sleeping, or Human relaxation, res ...
s and
pocosin Pocosin is a type of palustrine wetland with deep, acidic, sandy, peat soils. Groundwater saturates the soil except during brief seasonal dry spells and during prolonged droughts. Pocosin soils are nutrient-deficient (oligotrophic), especially in ...
s, among others. The plant's common name is based on its red roots and
rhizome In botany and dendrology, a rhizome ( ) is a modified subterranean plant stem that sends out roots and Shoot (botany), shoots from its Node (botany), nodes. Rhizomes are also called creeping rootstalks or just rootstalks. Rhizomes develop from ...
s. Its flowers, consisting of six pale yellow
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, emerge from mid to late summer. The plant is sometimes a significant weed in commercial
cranberry Cranberries are a group of evergreen dwarf shrubs or trailing vines in the subgenus ''Oxycoccus'' of the genus ''Vaccinium''. Cranberries are low, creeping shrubs or vines up to long and in height; they have slender stems that are not th ...
bogs.


Taxonomy

The generic name "''Lachnanthes''" is a conserved name in botany. This means that the name has been granted a special exemption to the ordinary priority rules, allowing a newer name to be used instead of an older one. Three names are relevant here: *''Heritiera'' Aiton, Hortus Kewensis 3: 546. 1789. *''Heritiera'' J.F. Gmelin, Systema Naturae, ed. 13 2: 113. 1791. *''Lachnanthes'' S. Elliott, Sketch of the Botany of South-Carolina and Georgia 1: 47. 1816. The first is a different plant, a tropical tree. This makes the second name an illegitimate homonym, unusable. The conservation decree allows the third name to be used in place of the second to refer to the plant now called ''Lachnanthes caroliana''.


Phylogeny

Comparison of homologous DNA has increased the insight in the phylogenetic relationships between the genera in the Haemodoroideae subfamily. The following trees represent those insights.


References


External links

*
Distribution Map in North America from Flora of North AmericaIllustration from Flora of North AmericaVideo from University of Florida
{{Taxonbar, from=Q16880304, from2=Q67192976 Haemodoraceae Monotypic Commelinales genera Flora of Northern America Taxa named by Stephen Elliott