Mitchella
Encyclopedia
Mitchella is a small genus from the family Rubiaceae
, native to the Americas
and eastern Asia
.
The genus Mitchella L.
, was named by Carl Linnaeus after his friend John Mitchell
(1711–1768), an English physician who lived in America and gave Linnaeus much valuable information on American flora.
It consists of a few glabrous or puberulous, creeping, rhizomatous herb
s with white axillary flower
s with funnel-shaped corolla. They prefer mildly acidic soils, growing in woods near pine
s or hemlock
or mossy hummocks.
Rubiaceae
The Rubiaceae is a family of flowering plants, variously called the coffee family, madder family, or bedstraw family. The group contains many commonly known plants, including the economically important coffee , quinine , and gambier , and the horticulturally valuable madder , west indian jasmine ,...
, native to the Americas
Americas
The Americas, or America , are lands in the Western hemisphere, also known as the New World. In English, the plural form the Americas is often used to refer to the landmasses of North America and South America with their associated islands and regions, while the singular form America is primarily...
and eastern Asia
Asia
Asia is the world's largest and most populous continent, located primarily in the eastern and northern hemispheres. It covers 8.7% of the Earth's total surface area and with approximately 3.879 billion people, it hosts 60% of the world's current human population...
.
The genus Mitchella L.
Carolus Linnaeus
Carl Linnaeus , also known after his ennoblement as , was a Swedish botanist, physician, and zoologist, who laid the foundations for the modern scheme of binomial nomenclature. He is known as the father of modern taxonomy, and is also considered one of the fathers of modern ecology...
, was named by Carl Linnaeus after his friend John Mitchell
John Mitchell (geographer)
John Mitchell was a colonial American doctor and botanist. He created the most comprehensive and perhaps largest 18th-century map of eastern North America, known today as the Mitchell Map...
(1711–1768), an English physician who lived in America and gave Linnaeus much valuable information on American flora.
It consists of a few glabrous or puberulous, creeping, rhizomatous herb
Herb
Except in botanical usage, an herb is "any plant with leaves, seeds, or flowers used for flavoring, food, medicine, or perfume" or "a part of such a plant as used in cooking"...
s with white axillary flower
Flower
A flower, sometimes known as a bloom or blossom, is the reproductive structure found in flowering plants . The biological function of a flower is to effect reproduction, usually by providing a mechanism for the union of sperm with eggs...
s with funnel-shaped corolla. They prefer mildly acidic soils, growing in woods near pine
Pine
Pines are trees in the genus Pinus ,in the family Pinaceae. They make up the monotypic subfamily Pinoideae. There are about 115 species of pine, although different authorities accept between 105 and 125 species.-Etymology:...
s or hemlock
Tsuga
Tsuga is a genus of conifers in the family Pinaceae. The common name hemlock is derived from a perceived similarity in the smell of its crushed foliage to that of the unrelated plant poison hemlock....
or mossy hummocks.
Selected species
- Mitchella ovata DC. (Ecuador)
- Mitchella repensMitchella repensMitchella repens , or Partridge Berry, or Squaw Vine, is the best known plant in the genus Mitchella.It is a creeping prostrate herbaceous woody shrub, occurring in North America and Japan, and belonging to the madder family ....
L. - Partridge Berry (eastern North America, Central America) - Mitchella undulata Siebold & Zucc. (Japan, Taiwan)