Triodanis perfoliata

Clasping Venus's Looking Glass
Triodanis perfoliata
Scientific classification
Kingdom: Plantae
(unranked): Angiosperms
(unranked): Eudicots
(unranked): Asterids
Order: Asterales
Family: Campanulaceae
Genus: Triodanis
Species: T. perfoliata
Binomial name
Triodanis perfoliata
(L.) Nieuwl.
Synonyms[1]
  • Campanula perfoliata L.
  • Legousia perfoliata (L.) Britton
  • Prismatocarpus perfoliatus (L.) Sweet
  • Pentagonia perfoliata (L.) Kuntze
  • Dysmicodon perfoliatum (L.) Nutt
  • Specularia perfoliata (L.) A.DC.

Triodanis perfoliata, the Clasping Venus's Looking Glass, is a flowering plant belonging to the family Campanulaceae. It is an annual herb native to North and South America, the natural range extending from Canada to Argentina. It is also naturalized in China, Korea and Australia.[1][2][3][4][5][6]

Description

The flowers are wheel-shaped or bell-shaped and violet blue. They have 5-lobed corollas and are radially symmetrical. The leaves are 1/4-1" wide, are scallop-edged and shell-shaped. The plant is 6-18" high and flowers from May to August. It produces a small, many seeded capsule for fruit.

Uses among Native Americans

The Cherokee take a liquid compound of root for dyspepsia from overeating, and take an infusion of roots taken and use it as a bath for dyspepsia.[7]

The Meskwaki use it as an emetic to make one "sick all day long",[8] and smoke it at ceremonies.[9]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Triodanis perfoliata.

References

  1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 Kew World Checklist of Selected Plant Families
  2. ↑ Flora of China v 19 p 552, 穿叶异檐花 chuan ye yi yan hua, Triodanis perfoliata (Linnaeus) Nieuwland, Amer. Midl. Naturalist. 3: 192. 1914.
  3. ↑ Acevedo-Rodríguez, P. & Strong, M.T. (2012). Catalogue of seed plants of the West Indies. Smithsonian Contributions to Botany 98: 1-1192.
  4. ↑ Lammers, T.G. (2007). World checklist and bibliography of Campanulaceae: 1-675. The Board of Trustees of the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew.
  5. ↑ Theiret, John (2001). "North American Wildflowers", Alfred A. Knopf Inc.
  6. ↑ Flora Bonaerense, Plantas y Hongos de la Provincia de Buenos Aires, Argentina, (Triodanis perfoliata)
  7. ↑ Taylor, Linda Averill 1940 Plants Used As Curatives by Certain Southeastern Tribes. Cambridge, MA. Botanical Museum of Harvard University (p. 60)
  8. ↑ Smith, Huron H. 1928 Ethnobotany of the Meskwaki Indians. Bulletin of the Public Museum of the City of Milwaukee 4:175-326 (p. 206)
  9. ↑ Smith, Huron H. 1928 Ethnobotany of the Meskwaki Indians. Bulletin of the Public Museum of the City of Milwaukee 4:175-326 (p. 272)

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