Magilla Coleus and Perilla summary

A great blog post was just posted today by rattlebox (aka Ron) at the forum  All Things Plants summarizing how the whole Magilla Perilla story started with the blogpost on this blog and the simple inquiry by a reader to the company that trademarked the name.  Thanks to everybody who has helped straighten out the mystery of the false Perilla. 

Coleus - I am calling your name! (But what is it?)

Many gardeners and naturalists are frustrated when we botanists change the scientific names of species. I feel frustrated too, when the crown vetch changes its gorgeous, easy-to-remember (for me) name Coronilla varia, to Securigera varia. Now the genus name sounds like a financial security company, not like a gorgeous crown of pink flowers.

But change happen, and it happens for a good reason. We are sorting out old problems and making things better and more logical in the long run. Keep on reading and you will find out what

Coleus hybrids.
(cc) photo by Pharaoh Hound on Wikimedia.

Wild species change genus for mainly one reason. We try to classify all species with their closest relatives, so that everything in a genus comes from one common ancestor species. That means, all species has one origin back in time and share a common history. To figure out this history and these relationships we use DNA and morphology, and build up evolutionary trees that shows the story of species evolution over time.

Of course, when most plants were first described, they weren't part of evolutionary studies. We first started to construct evolutionary trees using DNA and computers in the late 1980s. In the beginning of botanical taxonomy at Linnaeus' time we didn't even know about evolutionary theory, since that came about in the 1860s with Darwin. The start date for botanical nomenclature is Linnaeus book Species Plantarum from 1753. Before recent times, scientists gave species their scientific placement and names based on overall similarity or dissimilarity, not evolutionary relationships.

In the blogpost about "Magilla Perilla" we listed the scientific name for coleus as Solenostemon scutellarioides. We also listed two older synonyms as Plectranthus scutellarioides and Coleus blumei. A few weeks ago we e-mailed botanist Alan Paton, who works on the evolution of this plant group at Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew in London, and asked him, "What is the correct species name for coleus, for real, and where does it belong?" 

His answer was maybe not what you expect. He said:

"I'm writing up the research at the moment. [...] Plectranthus including some other genera on one hand and Coleus and some other relations including Solenostemon form sister clades. The actual picture with denser sampling shows a slightly more complex picture than these earlier papers; but they give an outline which suggests Coleus should be recognized and Solenostemon would be embedded within it."

What does this mean?  Be prepared to see the scientific name your garden coleus change back to original genus Coleus in the near future, and Solenostemon will be no more (it will be merged into Coleus). Plectranthus will still be around but with fewer species and not include your garden coleus. So, coleus will be a Coleus again, which is very nice, and certainly easy to remember. It has been a mess with these names, but Alan is sorting it all out, once and for all. Check back here on the Botanical Accuracy blog when his paper comes out for an update.

It is really all about getting the right species in the right place in the giant evolutionary family tree, which includes over 300 000 plant species in the world. No wonder it is a little chaotic at times. But we have to do it, and we have to use the most updated scientific names possible to talk to each other about plants and understand our plants, across over the world. It is all part of the progress of knowledge.  And sometimes increased knowledge isn't that convenient to begin with.

References:

Paton, A. J., et al. Phylogeny and evolution of basils and allies (Ocimeae, Labiatae) based on three plastid DNA regions. 2004. Molecular Phylogenetics and Evolution 31: 277-299.

Lukhoba, C. W., M. SJ Simmonds, & A.J. Paton. 2006. Plectranthus: A review of ethnobotanical uses. Journal of Ethnopharmacology 103: 1-24.

'What is in a (PLANT) name?' on the FLORIDATA website

Update on the magics of "Magilla Perilla"

Art Tucker and I have been getting a few e-mails about the blogpost explaining that Magilla Perilla is just a cultivar of the regular Coleus.  We thought we should clarify a few things for those of you that wonder and ponder the naming of plants.

1. Just because a name is listed in large, well-known databases run by organizations such as Royal Horticultural Society, doesn't mean the name is correct and accurate.  Many times common mistakes have been perpetuated throughout the online or printed publishing world. Often new facts have come to our attention, but the name has not yet been corrected by most sources. In printed books the mistake will live on until a new edition comes out.
2. Magilla Perilla is a coleus.  That has been shown by looking at scientific evidence such as anther morphology and annual versus perennial habitat. (See more information in this newsletter.)
3. Magilla Perilla is not a member of the Perilla genus.  If you are not convinced, grow some Perilla, some coleus, and then some 'Magilla Perilla'.  Do your own scientific studies and compare.  Hands-on science in the garden or backyard is a great thing.
4. What is the scientific genus name of coleus?  Well, that has now turned into a separate issue, and justifies its own blogpost, which will follow this one. 

 

Diagram showing where "Magilla Perilla" belongs = with the coleus, not the Perilla.
Copyright by BotanicalAccuracy.com

The species names of citrus - a sweet, sour, and sticky mess

Everybody knows the great and tasty citrus fruits - lemon, lime, orange, grapefruit, tangerine, and clementine, and maybe even the more rare bergamot, pomelo, tangelo, kumquat, yuzu, and tangelo.

Various slices of citrus fruits.  (Image from USDA, public domain.)

Since ancient times these plants have been cultivated, domesticated, and used by humans, and hybridization (on purpose or accidental) have created new hybrids. Citrus plants really do like to hybridize and since many of these hybridization and domestication events happened in the past it has been really hard to figure out these questions:
1) What is a species? (biological boundaries and evolution)
2) What is a hybrid? (= cross between two species, biology, evolution, and genetics)
3) What are the parent species of a hybrid? (genetics)
4) What is the correct scientific name for a species or a hybrid? (scientific nomenclature)

With the help of Dr. David Mabberley, an expert on the genus Citrus, I tried to sort this out since so many scientific names for citrus used on beauty and body products are inconsistent and sometimes flat out wrong and need to be updated. Please note that this is a work in progress for science, and that more research is needed to clarify relationships further.  Citrus relationships are a very messy business, indeed. So, here is the most up-to-date information, as far as I can discern.

This is a summary picture of the current hypotheses of the relationships of the most common species and hybrids of Citrus:

Origins and scientific names for the most commonly cultivated citrus fruits. 
Based on data from D.J. Mabberley's publications.

In botanical taxonomy a species (*) can only have one current and unique scientific name.  Other names are synonyms and their use should be phased out, and only be listed as synonyms in publications. This is to ease the communication and understanding in botany, horticulture, ethnobotany, and agriculture. We should all know what we talk about and we should talk about the same thing when we use a species name, right?
(* except for some fungi, but the mycologists are sorting that out now too, slowly. )

Hybrids either get their parents' names with an 'x' in between parent names (mother listed first), or a brand new species epithet preceded by a 'x'.  So, in the figure above, the name for orange can be listed as Citrus maxima x Citrus reticulata, or Citrus x aurantium.  You often see the name Citrus sinensis or Citrus x sinensis for oranges, but those are synonym names that should not be used anymore.

The group Citrus x aurantium includes a large array of different cultivars and varieties, such as orange, tangor, grapefruit, bitter orange, clementine and tangelo.  This is because the initial hybrids where then back-crossed to different parents, so Citrus x aurantium is really a large hybrid complex. 

So, what are then the most up to date names for cultivated and commercial citrus fruits? Here they are:

Common name	Current scientific name	Common inaccurate botanical and ingredient names
bergamot	Citrus × limon	Citrus aurantium var. bergamia, Citrus bergamia
bitter orange	Citrus × aurantium	Citrus amara, Citrus aurantium ssp. amara, Citrus iyo
cedrat	Citrus reticulata	Citrus x reticulata
citron	Citrus medica	Citrus medica var. acida
clementine	Citrus × aurantium	Citrus clementina
grapefruit	Citrus × aurantium	Citrus paradisi, Citrus × paradisi
kaffir lime (now called makrut lime)	Citrus hystrix
kumquat	Citrus japonica
lemon	Citrus × limon	Citrus limon, Citrus medica var. limon
lime	Citrus × aurantiifolia	Citrus aurantifolia
makrut lime	Citrus hystrix
mandarin	Citrus reticulata	Citrus x reticulata
orange	Citrus × aurantium	Citrus aurantium, Citrus aurantium var. sinensis, Citrus sinensis, Citrus × sinensis
pomelo	Citrus maxima	Citrus grandis
satsuma	Citrus reticulata	Citrus unshiu
Tahiti lime (seedless)	Citrus x latifolia
tangelo	Citrus × aurantium	Citrus tangelo
tangerine	Citrus reticulata	Citrus x reticulata,  Citrus × tangerina
tangor	Citrus × aurantium	Citrus nobilis, Citrus x nobilis
yuzu	Citrus × junos	Citrus junos

Many of the commercial, non-commercial, government or non-profit databases and publications do not use these updated names.  They are often lagging behind and changing names take time.

Want to read more about the delicious history and taxonomy of citrus plants?  Try these scientific papers if you want something more substantial than Wikipedia. 

Mabberley, D. J. 1997. A classification for edible Citrus (Rutaceae). Telopea 7: 167-172.

Mabberley, D. J. 2004. Citrus(Rutaceae): A review of recent advances in etymology, systematics, and medical applications. Blumea 49: 481-498 

 Zhang, D. & D. J. Mabberley.  Citrus in Flora of China. [Lots of interesting information here!]

Li, X., R. Xie, Z. Lu, & Z. Zhou. 2010. The origin of cultivated Citrus as inferred from internal transcribed spacer and chloroplast DNA sequence and Amplified Fragment Length Polymorphism fingerprints. Journal of the American Society for Horticultural Science 135: 341-350. [Note - some of their results do not agree with the parent hypotheses presented above.]

(Many thanks to Dr. David J. Mabberley for expert help and information for this post.)

Flowering ferns and other mythical greens

The Philadelphia Flower Show is a paradise for winter-weary gardeners.  It can also be great fodder for botanical accuracy blog posts, but I have to say that this year's show was a lot better than usual. It was a delight to be there in this seemingly perpetual winter.  As for botanical inaccuracies, there was only one that stared you in the face, label and all.

"Flowering Ferns", label seen at Philadelphia Flower Show.
Photo © BotanicalAccuracy.com.

This label is from a Dutch company's booth where they were briskly selling "Flowering ferns".  How can that be? Isn't that like unicorns or flying horses? A combination of features that has never evolved, in horses, or in ferns.

So what is wrong with flowering ferns, apart from the fact that they don't exist?  On the tree of life of plants, ferns (and horsetails) are located above the mosses and liverworts at the base, and below the conifers (spruces, pines, etc.) and flowering plants.  Conifers and flowering plans have seeds, but ferns, lycopods, and mosses have spores spread from sporangia, never seeds. Flowers and fruits only occur in angiosperms (flowering plants), a group that evolved a lot later than ferns. So what is in this bag for sale in this booth? A fern or a flowering plant?

"Flowering Ferns" packet, seen at Philadelphia Flower Show.
Photo © BotanicalAccuracy.com.

It turns out to be a flowering plant with fern-like leaves. The species is Incarvillea delavayi. It is a member of the family of Bignoniaceae (bignons), together with trumpet creeper (Campsis), jacaranda (Jacaranda), and African tulip tree (Spathodea).  Common names for this species are hardy gloxinia, incarvillea, garden gloxinia, and Delavays trumpet flower.  To add the inaccurate name 'flowering ferns', just add confusion. 

Magilla Gorilla and shady cultivars

[This is a guest post provided by Dr. Arthur O. Tucker, Delaware State University]

I know that if you’ve gone to the garden centers in the past few years, you have to have spotted plants with the label of ‘Magilla Perilla’ and ‘Magilla Vanilla.’ American nurseries and 99.9% of web sites insist that this may be a coleus-like plant, but it is definitely a perilla, not a coleus. Both perilla and coleus are members of the mint family, the Lamiaceae.

'Magilla Perilla'
Photo © Mississippi State University, fair use (link)

I e-mailed the company that introduced and distributed 'Magilla Perilla' in North America. Over a later telephone call, their “expert” insisted that these plants are perilla, not coleus, because the Japanese company that supplied them said so. Thus I was wrong and they were right.

Plant growing card for 'Perilla Magilla'. © Do Right's.com, fair use (link)

Perilla, alias wild coleus or perilla, is a monotypic genus encompassing only one species, Perilla frutescens (L.) R.Br.   Perilla is a culinary herb commonly used in Asian cooking. This is an annual plant, even its tropical cultivar from Viet Nam, ‘Tia To’, only survives one growing season.

Perilla frutescens, the true perilla, as a red-leaved variety.
Photo (cc) by Henry Heatly (link)

After perilla flowers and sets seed, it dies like a true annual should; nothing you can do will keep it alive for more than one season. The other distinguishing character of the genus Perilla is that the stamen filaments are not united at the base (i.e., not connate).

Coleus is nowadays usually classified as the species Solenostemon scutellarioides (L.) Codd, with older synonyms being Plectranthus scutellarioides (L.) R.Br. and Coleus blumei Benth. Coleus is a tropical perennial that is often treated as a summer annual in northern gardens. The other distinguishing character of our garden coleus is that the stamen filaments are basally united (i.e., connate, not free as in Perilla).

A garden coleus, Solenostemon scutellarioides, one of many varieties and cultivars.
Photo (cc) brighterorange (link)

The trouble is that ‘Magilla Perilla’ rarely flowers. We finally obtained a flowering specimen (now vouchered at DOV herbarium at Delaware State University), and it has basally united stamen filaments, so it is clearly a coleus, not a perilla. It is also a perennial and, if taken into the greenhouse over winter, continues to grow and flower as a perennial, just like coleus. Thus, ‘Magilla Perilla’ is a regular coleus, not a special perilla. 
 
In writing The Encyclopedia of Herbs (Timber Press, 2009), I wrote: “And a word to the wise: ‘Magilla Perilla’ and ‘Magilla Vanilla’ are coleus… not perilla…." The editor changed this sentence to say that ‘Magilla Perilla’ is a perilla, not coleus, because, as she insisted, every web site said such, so I must be wrong. Of course, in my typical fashion, I went ballistic, so to calm me they changed it back to my original writing.  By the same line of thinking, is ‘Magilla Vanilla’ a species of vanilla, an orchid? Ridiculous!

This is a classic case of suppliers not knowing what plant species they are supplying, companies trusting the suppliers wholeheartedly without checking the provided materials, companies spreading the wrong information, and in the end creating total confusion.  The plant looks like a coleus because it is one. 

Despite this, public and private gardening resources call it a perilla or a 'hybrid' of Perilla frutescens, and it has even been given the fake scientific name 'Perilla magella'. Information like this is spread by sources such as agricultural extension services in several US states,  Royal Horticultural Society in the UK, Local Gardener, and Dave's Garden.  There are a lot of corrections of this mistake needed online, in stores, and in print.  Mistakes happen, but when known, they should be fixed as soon as possible. 

So, to conclude:
'Magilla Perilla' and 'Magilla Vanilla' are the same species as the commonly grown coleus, just different cultivars. Their scientific name is Solenostemon scutellarioides. Neither of these two plants have anyhing to do with the culinary herb perilla.

A correction of this botanical mistake was also published in the Newsletter from the Herb Society of America in 2010. [link]

Frosty fern? It is a variegated spike moss

Before Christmas a fern-looking plant often shows up in the supermarkets and is marketed as 'frosty fern',  a name it gets from its fern-like leaves (more on that later) and white-tipped branches.

'Frosty fern' for sale, with rather zoologically inaccurate cardinals as highlights, but that is for another blog.
Photo (cc) BotanicalAccuracy.com.

Frosty fern for sale at Shoprite in New Jersey, USA.
Photo (cc) BotanicalAccuracy.com

But, in fact, it is no fern at all.  It is a Selaginella, a spike moss in the lycopod group.  It is also called African club moss or Krauss' spike moss, and its scientific species name is Selaginella kraussiana (family Selaginellaceae).  Many club mosses belong to another lycopod family, the Lycopodiaceae.

Ferns below to a different branch on the green tree of life, they are not lycopods.  The two evolutionary branches are about as different as a turtle and a salamander. We easily keep salamanders (and other amphibians) apart from turtles and tortoises in our brains, but green things from many different branches on the tree of life look very similar to us.

Lycopods evolved before ferns and have spores, just like ferns, but lycopods differ a lot in how their leaves are constructed.  Look closely, and you can see that lycopods have branches and stems with tiny scale-like leaves.  These leaves are called lycophylls. 

Some people mix up this plant with mosses, but real mosses are smaller and do not have roots like lycopods do.  Mosses also have scale-like leaves, called microphylls, and they are very similar to lycophylls just smaller.  So club mosses and spike mosses are not mosses.

A branch of a Selaginella (Frosty Fern) showing many, many small scale-like leaves.
Photo (cc) BotanicalAccuracy.com

Ferns on the other hand have large leaves, often divided, and these leaves are called euphylls, which means 'true leaves'.  Other groups with true leaves are conifers (needles!) and all flowering plants (oaks, grasses, and dandelions and such).  True leaves have many veins in them (look closely), but lycophylls and microphylls have only one vein in each leaf.

So, the common name of this plant is often 'frosty fern', and it is not uncommon for common names to give the wrong impression of a plant's taxonomic belonging.  Just think of names such as 'lucky bamboo' (not a bamboo at all) and reindeer moss (a lichen).  Common names are everyday names, often traditional, used among people so we can communicate about the plants around us.  The real problem starts when we think this plant is a fern.  And that happens, and then the botanical mistake is a fact induced by the not-so-great common name.  Such as in this example:

"Never allow the soil to dry around your frosty fern. This fern doesn't tolerate dry periods or waterlogged soil."  (link to source at GardenGuides.com)

Suddenly the spike moss became a fern for real in that quote. And suddenly, a botanical inaccuracy have been introduced in our way of thinking about this plant, because of its name. So therefore it is best to avoid such common names and instead use names that are more appropriate, like Krauss' spike moss.  

The same thing can happen among animals, but usually we know that guinea pigs are not pigs, and that seahorses are not horses, and that ant lions are only very, very distantly related to lions. All because animals are a little more charismatic than plants and it is easier for us to relate to them as pets, food, dangers, or just crazy, cool species. (In reality plants are more of your food than animals are and as dangerous and cool as animals.)

Here is a great blogpost about this plant and its botanical inaccuracies from New Hampshire Garden Solutions.  George Rogers has also written about this plant in a great little article in North County Current. Just remember not to introduce this non-native plant to your subtropical garden in southern United States, since it can easily become invasive.

What Christmas tree is that? A guide to common species

Christmas trees come in many shapes, colors, and species these days.  In the old days you went out into the forest and cut a little (usually rather scraggly-looking) tree of some native tree in your local forests.

Postage stamp from Åland (between Sweden and Finland) showing people
(with saw in hand) bringing home the Christmas tree.
(c) Posten Åland, fair use (link)

For example, in Northern Europe you have only one local species of pine (Scots Pine, Pinus sylvestris), and only one spruce species (Norway Spruce, Picea abies), so a wildcut tree would be one of those species. Unless you brought in a juniper of course (Juniperus communis). In North America there are more local conifers to choose from, but still mostly only a handful.  But these days things are not so simple.

Nowadays, the Christmas tree plantations grow a wide variety of conifer species that might not be local to your area. If you get a tree from a supplier, then the tree might come from far away.  So, finding out what tree you have standing in your living room might not be that simple.

The National Christmas Tree Association has nice photos and descriptions of the most common species. Brooklyn Botanic Garden also has a great clickable key to Christmas tree species with images and descriptions of 15 common species. (Update: Max Payne also has a nice page with descriptions of common Christmas tree species, including several Cupressaceae species.)

First, most Christmas trees are either FIRS (Abies), SPRUCES (Picea), DOUGLAS FIR (Pseudotsuga). or PINES (Pinus). All of these are conifers and have leaves called needles, and cones (except, you rarely see cones on young trees used for Christmas). These plants are quite easy to tell apart and they all belong to the pine family, Pinaceae. See key below.

US Postal stamps showing balsam fir, blue spruce, ponderosa pine and eastern red cedar.
(c) USPS, fair use (link)

Identification key to common Christmas tree genera

1a. Are the needles clustered 2-5 together? Yes - it is a pine (Pinus).
1b. Are needles single? Yes - it is a fir, douglas fir, or spruce. Go to 2.  

2a. Are the needles square in cross-section and green underneath? Yes - it is a spruce (Picea).
2b. Are the needles flat in cross-section and have two white bands underneath? Yes - it is a fir or douglas fir. Go to 3.

3a. The buds at the end of each branch have a sharp tip and are elongated. Yes - it is a douglas fir (Pseudotsuga).
3b. The buds at the end of each branch are blunt at the apex and round. Yes - it is a fir (Abies).

White pine.
Public domain image by Hardyplants, Wikipedia.

PINES (needles grouped in 2-5's)
Needles 5 together: 

• White pine (Pinus strobus) - green to bluish green, needles 5 together, 5-12 (2-4") cm long

Needles 2 together:

• Scots pine [older name: Scotch pine] (Pinus sylvestris) - green, sometimes silvery, needles 2 together, 4-7 cm (2-3") long
• Virginia pine (Pinus virginiana) - green to yellowish green, needles 2 together, 4-7 cm (2-3") long

Norway spruce branch.
(cc) Wikipedi, Wikipedia.

SPRUCES (needles single, square in cross-section, no white bands below each needle; each needle attached to the branch on a little outgrowth; needles attached spirally around branch)

Bluish or greyish tree

• Colorado blue spruce (Picea pungens) - blue green, needles 2-3.5 cm (1-1 1/4") long, with sharp tip
• White spruce (Picea glauca) - bluish to bluish green or gray, needles 1-2 cm (3/8-3/4") long, with blunt tip

Green tree

• Norway spruce (Picea abies) - dark green, needles 1-2.5 cm (1/2-1") long (drooping branches)

Douglas fir branch with cones. The cones are unique,
look at those bracts hanging out betweenthe scales, nothing else looks like that.
(cc) Walter Siegmund, Wikipedia.

DOUGLAS-FIR (needles single, white bands below each needle)

• Douglas-Fir (Pseudotsuga menziesii) - green to blue green, needles soft, 2-4 cm (3/4-1 1/4") long
  

Needles of White Fir showing white lines underneath.
(cc) Walter Siegmund, Wikipedia.

FIRS (needles single, flattened; white bands below each needle; each needles attached directly to the branch; needles attached in two rows along branch)

Needles with two white lines above

• Concolor Fir [White Fir] (Abies concolor) - green to bluish green, needles 2-5 cm (1 1/4-2") long (needles with sharp apices)
•  Caucasian Fir ["Nordmann"] (Abies nordmanniana) -  dark green, needles 1.8–3.5 cm (2/3-1 1/2")

Needles green or silvery above, without lines

• Balsam Fir (Abies balsamea) - dark green, needles 1-4 cm (3/8-1 1/2") long (needles with blunt, notched apex)
• Fraser Fir (Abies fraseri) - silvery to dark blue green, needles 1-2 cm (1/2-1") long (twigs with red hairs)
• Grand Fir (Abies grandis) - green, needles 2-5 (1/2-2") cm long (twigs with grey hairs, needles with blunt, notched apex)
• Noble Fir (Abies procera) - silvery, needles 2-4 cm (1-1 1/2) inches long (needles turn upwards along branches)

(Not included in this blog post are cedars, junipers, and yew, since they are less common as Christmas trees.)
Post updated 28 January 2014 with new information provided by MF.