Blephilia
Downy pagoda-plant (Blephilia ciliata)
Scientific classification Edit this classification
Kingdom: Plantae
Clade: Tracheophytes
Clade: Angiosperms
Clade: Eudicots
Clade: Asterids
Order: Lamiales
Family: Lamiaceae
Subfamily: Nepetoideae
Tribe: Mentheae
Genus: Blephilia
(L.) Raf.

Blephilia, the pagoda plant or wood mint, is a genus of four species of flowering plants in the family Lamiaceae. They are all herbaceous plants native to eastern North America.[1][2] Blephilia are most often found in open areas, glades, and mesic forests. All species of Blephilia are considered threatened or endangered in some states. [3] [4][5] [6]

The genus includes only perennial species that spread by both seeds and through stem division. Small white to purple-lavender flowers occur in inflorescences that cluster in the upper leaf axils, often in several circular layers (hence the common name pagoda-plant). Leaves are generally lanceolate to ovate and vary in shades of green. Leaves are either petiolate or subsessile (depending on the species).[5] Like many other members of the subtribe Menthinae, all parts of Blephilia are highly aromatic when crushed and have smells similar to menthol and spearmint.

Species

  • Blephilia ciliata (L.) Benth. – downy pagoda-plant – widespread from Texas and Florida north to Quebec and Ontario
  • Blephilia hirsuta (Pursh) Benth. – hairy pagoda-plant – widespread from Texas and Georgia north to Quebec and Ontario
  • Blephilia subnuda Simmers & Kral – Cumberland pagoda-plant – endemic to northeastern Alabama
  • Blephilia woffordii Floden - Wofford's pagoda-plant - endemic to central Tennessee

References

  1. ↑ "Blephilia". World Checklist of Selected Plant Families (WCSP). Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew.
  2. ↑ "Blephilia". County-level distribution maps from the North American Plant Atlas (NAPA). Biota of North America Program (BONAP). 2013.
  3. ↑ USDA, NRCS (n.d.). "Blephilia". The PLANTS Database (plants.usda.gov). Greensboro, North Carolina: National Plant Data Team. Retrieved July 16, 2007.
  4. ↑ "Blephilia". Native Plant Database. Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center, University of Texas at Austin. Retrieved July 16, 2007.
  5. 1 2 Simmers, Richard W.; Kral, Robert (1992). "A New Species of Blephilia (Lamiaceae) from Northern Alabama". Rhodora. 94 (877): 1–14. ISSN 0035-4902. JSTOR 23313168.
  6. ↑ Floden, Aaron; Schilling, Edward (2020). "A new stenoendemic species of Blephilia (Lamiaceae: Lamioideae; Menthinae) from the Interior Low Plateau of Tennessee". Phytotaxa. 442 (2): 101–110.
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