Ruscus hypoglossum
| Mouse Thorn | |
|---|---|
 | |
Scientific classification  | |
| Kingdom: | Plantae |
| Clade: | Angiosperms |
| Clade: | Monocots |
| Order: | Asparagales |
| Family: | Asparagaceae |
| Subfamily: | Nolinoideae |
| Genus: | Ruscus |
| Species: | R. hypoglossum |
| Binomial name | |
| Ruscus hypoglossum L. | |
Ruscus hypoglossum is a small evergreen shrub with a native range from Italy north to Austria and Slovakia and east to Turkey and Crimea.[1] Common names include mouse thorn, spineless butcher's broom[2] and horse tongue lily. The laurel crown of Caesar was made of Ruscus hypoglossum.[3]
Description
The mature plant shrub will eventually reach about 18 inches in height. It has a creeping rootstock and leaf-like phylloclades or flattened stems that are about 3 inches wide to 1½ inches wide tapering at both ends. True leaves are smaller green appendages around the flowers. Small yellow flowers bloom in the axil of a leaf-like bract 1 - 1.5 inches long on upper side of phylloclade. Fruit is a rarely produced red globose berry 0.25 to 0.5 inches wide.[4]
References
- ↑ Halada, Ľ. "Ruscus hypoglossum L. in Slovakia". Thaiszia 4: 183–195. ISSN 1210-0420.
- ↑ "USDA GRIN Taxonomy".
- ↑ Mabberley, D.J. (1997). The plant book: A portable dictionary of the vascular plants. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
- ↑ "Ruscus hypoglossum". University of Connecticut - Ecology and Evolutionary Biology Plant Growth Facilities. Retrieved 19 March 2012.