The inflorescences of Anemopsis californica
Anemopsis californica is a member of the Saururaceae, or lizard’s-tail family, which contains only seven species in four genera. I have looked and looked and am unable to find a reference for why this family would have such an interesting common name. If anyone knows, please post a comment below!
Anemopsis californica is a herbaceous perennial species that forms tight, spreading mats and is found in the wild in alkaline and saline marshes of southwestern North America. It is increasingly gaining popularity with gardeners, who use the species as a pond plant and ground-cover in wet areas. For all its beauty in the spring, it is apparently quite ugly in the late summer and winter, and the staff at Las Pilatas Nursery recommend either mowing Anemopsis californica after flowering, or planting it with Eliocharis or Iris species.
Anemopsis californica is also known as yerba mansa, and was commonly used by native North Americans and early Californian settlers both as a food and a medicine. The highly fragrant root is edible raw or cooked, and the seeds can be pounded into a flour and baked into bread. Yerba mansa was used to treat a variety of ailments, from colds to scrapes to venereal disease.
Anemopsis californica forms a special type of inflorescence termed a pseudanthium, in which several tiny flowers (florets) are grouped together in a flower-like structure. The white petal-like structures in the photo are actually persistent bracts (an involucre) that surround the base of the actual inflorescence. The florets are grouped tightly on conical receptacle, or torus. The florets lack stalks, sepals, and petals, and are each subtended by a small white bract. These photos of Anemopsis californica flower heads clearly show the difference between the small floral bracts and the petal-like involucral bracts that surround the spike. At maturity, the conical structure detaches from the rest of the plant and (if it lands in a water body) disperses its numerous tiny seeds as it floats along the current.
Anemopsis californica does not have flowers that look very much like lizard tails, but other members of this family such as Saururus cernuus have an inflorescence of small, white flowers that grow in a spike with a drooping tip that resemble the whip-like tails of lizards.
Karen – was just coming in to say that.
Here is an example of the eastern North America Lizard’s Tail (Saururus cernuus): https://www.flickr.com/photos/ericinsf/7324213488/
Hi,
there is a very interesting article (pdf) on Saururus available on the web – among much else it explains how it (and hence the family) got its name. The URL is horrendously long, but if you do a search on ‘ fnps austin saururus ‘, it will be the first link listed.
Tamara, thank you for a great series of posts and some wonderful photos.
boa sorte
Brian
In a real tragedy of how our perspective on the world around us has changed, this beautiful and useful native wildflower is listed as a “weed” in each of the following references.
1.California Growers Weed Identification Handbook, 1968 – 1998 University of California Publication # 4030-1, See page: 202
2.Garden Weeds of Southern California, 1981, See page: 102
3.Weeds of California, 1970, State of California Publications and Documents. See page: 27, 130
Thanks for selecting my photo.
My mother used to make us pick the plant and she would throw the root into bottle of alcohol. Any injury we would get, we would get this browned colored alcohol pressed against our injury. Never knew how my mom knew the root was medicinal. Mother was Chinese and born in china.