Description

Prior Identification

Edith Sherwood has identified Plant 15v as Paris quadrifolia. This seems unlikely, even if the plant has the same basic shape and number of leaves. In contrast to Paris, Plant 15v has long, gently curved stems with rows of berries or small rounded blossoms. Paris has a single flower or berry at the end of a much shorter stem. It is far more likely that this is Spigellia, which it matches well, than Paris.

Posted by J. Petersen

July 25, 2013

Postscript (Jan. 12, 2018): When I originally posted the above identification, in 2013, I didn’t have time to search for public domain images of Spigellia to show how well the VMS drawing matches. Now that more images are available, it’s much quicker and easier to find them and I am posting a small selection so you can see that the VMS drawing resembles Spigelia much more than Paris quadrifolia:

Spigelia anthelmia flower stalks are often longer and more wavy than these drawings. When they mature, small round berry-like fruits are formed. The root forms side-growing rhizomes which were used in traditional medicine.

As can be seen from these images, Spigellia anthelmia typically has double pairs of leaves (from a distance they look like four leaves because the pairs are next to each other at right angles) and sports distinctive long curving flower stalks that form berry-like knobs when the fruits are ripe. There may be one to four flower stalks per plant, but often they grow in pairs.

There’s a good photo of the living plant here.

Note how these dried specimens are more similar to the VMS plant—many of them have only a single set of leaves, especially when they are young. Note how the root-stalk has a small swollen knob. Specimens courtesy of the Linnaen Herbarium, Department of Phanerogamic Botany Swedish Museum of Natural History: