JOHN NELSON
Botanists have many heroes. One of the best known is of course Charles Linnaeus, the “father of plant taxonomy”, who lived and worked in Sweden.
Perhaps his most memorable publication was a masterpiece entitled “Species Plantarum”, published in 1753, which attempted to list all known plant species in the world, along with a brief description. Many plant species have received their scientific names in this publication, and this week's Mystery Plant is one of them. Linnaeus received a dried and pressed specimen of this plant, sent to him from Virginia, and it is on this specimen (now in the Linnaean Herbarium, London) that the name of the plant is based.
It is a coastal plain species but is never very common anywhere. It occurs from eastern Virginia south to the Florida Panhandle, then just west to Texas. It is most likely found in deep, swampy forests, usually located on slightly higher ground, such as cliffs or ravines. Here in the Palmetto State, the plants are perhaps associated with the calcareous soils of these habitats. It often forms a large spreading shrub, with young branches and the underside of the leaves quite silky.
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There is a very similar species, with slightly smaller flowers, in our southern mountains, and eight or nine other close relatives in Japan, Korea and China.
When it blooms, our mysterious plant will amaze you; it's quite a sight when you see it blooming like crazy in the shady woods on a summer day. Almost all of the flowers on the same plant will open around the same time, putting on quite a show.
Each flower, about 3 inches across, somewhat resembles a cultivated camellia, to which it is related, with five large ivory-white petals and 20 or more purple-red stamens. So, among our native shrub species, these are among the prettiest flowers there is. Sorry to say it, but the flowers don't have much scent. Damn. After flowering, silky capsules are produced containing a number of hard, shiny seeds.
For all their extravagance during flowering, the plants are almost invisible before and after flowering. The glossy green leaves are not particularly notable; the leaves are soccer ball shaped, green and very boring, so the plants usually blend in with neighboring shrubs and trees. This particular species is a real challenge to grow in the garden; its Asian counterparts, however, are accessible to gardeners and make beautiful ornamental shrubs.
Now back to Linnaeus and the name of this plant. Linnaeus named his genus after John Stuart, a Scot, third Earl of Bute, who served for a time as British Prime Minister and was an enterprising amateur botanist, even helping to design the Royal Botanic Gardens at Kew, near London.
The problem was that Linnaeus misspelled Stuart's name very badly, and the genus name we use now is, in fact, a big botanical typo. But there are many rules when it comes to plant names, and we can't change this one.
Answer: “Wild camellia”, “Silky camellia”, Stewartia malacodendron.
John Nelson is the retired curator of the AC Moore Herbarium at the University of South Carolina at Columbia. As a public service, the herbarium offers free plant identifications. For more information, visit herbarium.orgcall (803) 777-8196 or email [email protected].
