Sepals and Petals and Stamens—Oh, My! Or, a brief discourse on putative homologies of perianth elements of Common Black Cohosh

Authors

W. John Hayden, University of RichmondFollow

Abstract

I encountered some contradictory information while preparing to write the 2017 Wildflower of the Year brochure: some sources describe flowers of Actaea racemosa, Common Black Cohosh, as having petals, while others say petals are absent. How can that be? How could there be such uncertainty about this common plant, one known to science since before the time of Linnaeus? After a little research, I decided to describe Black Cohosh flowers as having a series of organs interpretable either as staminodes (nonfunctional stamens) or as petals located between its sepals and stamens (Figure 1). Frankly, I waffled on the petal issue, and this article explores why

Document Type

Article

Publication Date

Winter 2017

Publisher Statement

Copyright © 2017 Virginia Native Plant Society. This article first appeared in Sempervirens Quarterly (Winter 2017), 8-9.

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Recommended Citation

Hayden, W. John. "Sepals and Petals and Stamens—Oh, My! Or, a brief discourse on putative homologies of perianth elements of Common Black Cohosh." Sempervirens Quarterly, Winter 2017, 8-9.