Mitchella

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Mitchella
Mitchella repens
Mitchella repens
Scientific classification
Kingdom: Plantae
Division: Magnoliophyta
Class: Magnoliopsida
Order: Gentianales
Family: Rubiaceae
Genus: Mitchella
L.
Species

See text

Mitchella is a small genus from the family Rubiaceae, native to the Americas and eastern Asia.

The genus Mitchella L., was named by Carolus 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 herbs with white axillary flowers with funnel-shaped corolla. They prefer mildly acidic soils, growing in woods near pines or hemlock or mossy hummocks.

Selected species
  • Mitchella ovata DC (Ecuador)
  • Mitchella repens L. (Partridge Berry; eastern North America, Central America)
  • Mitchella undulata Siebold & Zucc. (Japan, Taiwan)

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