Hepatica ( hepatica,[Gleason, H.A. 1952. The new Britton and Brown Illustrated flora of the Northeastern United States and adjacent Canada. Volume 2: The chloripetalous Dicotyledoneae. Hafner Press, New York.] liverleaf,[Bailey, L.H.; Bailey, E.Z.; the staff of the Liberty Hyde Bailey Hortorium. 1976. Hortus third: A concise dictionary of plants cultivated in the United States and Canada. Macmillan, New York.] or liverwort)[ Webster's Third International Dictionary] is a genus of herbaceous plant perennial plant in the Ranunculaceae, native to central and northern Europe, Asia and eastern North America. Some botanists include Hepatica within a sensu lato of Anemone.
Description
Bisexual
with pink, purple, blue, or white
and three green
appear singly on hairy
Plant stem from late
winter to spring.
Butterfly,
,
,
fly and
are known
.
The leaf are basal, leathery, and usually three-lobed, remaining over winter.
Taxonomy
Hepatica was described by the English
botany Philip Miller in 1754. It was proposed as a
subgenus of
Anemone in 1836, but later segregated into genus
Hepatica.
Taxa
,
Kew's Plants of the World Online (POWO) accepts 7
species and one hybrid in the genus
Hepatica:
One infraspecific taxon is also recognized by POWO:
-
Hepatica nobilis var. japonica
-
Synonym: Hepatica asiatica
-
Synonym: Hepatica insularis
Hepatica can be divided into two series with respect to leaf edge:
Series Triloba
The leaves of the series
Triloba Ulbr.
[Ulbrich, O.E.: Über die systematische Gliederung und geographische Verbreitung der Gattung Anemone L. Bot. Jahrb. Syst. (1905) 37: 172 - 257, 38: 257 - 334.] Michio Tamura:
[Tamura, M.: Morphology, ecology and phylogeny of the Ranunculaceae” VII. Science reports of South College, North College of Osaka University, Japan 16:21-43, 1968.] are three-lobed with a smooth leaf edge.
-
Hepatica acutiloba: Eastern Canada, Midwestern United States, Eastern United States
-
Hepatica americana: Central Canada, Eastern Canada, Midwestern United States, Eastern United States
-
Hepatica maxima: endemic to Ulleung-do island (South Korea)
-
Hepatica nobilis:
Series Angulosa
The leaves of series
Angulosa (Ulbr.)
Tamura
are three- to five-lobed with a crenate leaf edge.
-
Hepatica falconeri — Mountain forests of Central Asia; India: Northwest Himalayas (Himachal Pradesh, Jammu and Kashmir); Northwest China (Tienshan); Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan (Pamir-Alay); North Pakistan, Kazakhstan (North Tienshan)
-
Hepatica henryi: North Central China, South Central China (western Hubei, northern Hunan, Sichuan, Shaanxi)
[STEWARD, A.N.: in Rhodora 29: 53. 1927][Peters, Jürgen: Das etwas andere Leberblümchen: Hepatica yamatutai Nakai in ‚Gartenbotanische Blätter‘ 5/2000 der Gartenbotanischen Vereinigung in Deutschland]
-
Hepatica × media: Romania
-
Hepatica transsilvanica: Romania (Carpathian Mountains, Transylvania)
Etymology
The word
hepatica derives from the
Greek language ἡπατικός , from 'liver', because its three-lobed leaf was thought to resemble the human
liver.
Distribution
Plants of genus
Hepatica are
Native plant to
Europe,
Asia, and
North America.
-
Europe: Albania, Austria, the Baltic states, Belarus, Bulgaria, Corsica, Czechoslovakia, Denmark, European Russia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Italy, Norway, Poland, Romania, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Ukraine, Yugoslavia
-
Central Asia: Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Western Siberia
-
Eastern Asia: North China, South Central China, East China, Japan, Korea, Manchuria, Primorsky Krai
-
South Asia: Pakistan, Western Himalaya
-
Canada: Manitoba, New Brunswick, Nova Scotia, Ontario, Québec
-
United States: Alabama, Arkansas, Connecticut, Delaware, District of Columbia, Florida, Georgia, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kentucky, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, Mississippi, Missouri, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, North Carolina, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, South Carolina, Tennessee, Vermont, Virginia, West Virginia, Wisconsin
Plants of the genus have been introduced to Belgium.
Cultivation
Hepatica cultivation has been popular in Japan since the 18th century (mid-
Edo period), where flowers with
doubled petals and a range of colour patterns have been developed.
Noted for its tolerance of alkaline limestone-derived soils, Hepatica may grow in a wide range of conditions; it can be found either in deeply shaded deciduous (especially beech) woodland and scrub or grassland in full sun. Hepatica will also grow in both sandy and clay-rich substrates, being associated with limestone. Moist soil and winter snowfall are required; Hepatica is tolerant of winter snow cover, but less so of dry frost.
Propagation is done by seeds or by dividing vigorous clumps in spring. However, seedlings take several years to reach bloom size, and divided plants are slow to thicken.
Uses
Hepatica was once used as a
herbalism. Owing to the doctrine of signatures, the plant was once thought to be an effective treatment for liver disorders. Although poisonous in large doses, the leaves and flowers may be used as an
astringent, as a
demulcent for slow-healing injuries, and as a
diuretic.
External links
