Narratives Details:
Title:
Bryophyllum pinnatum (L. f.) Kurz
Bryophyllum pinnatum (L. f.) Kurz
Authors:
Nathaniel Lord Britton, Frances W. Horne
Nathaniel Lord Britton, Frances W. Horne
Scientific Name:
Bryophyllum pinnatum (Lam.) Oken, Bryophyllum calycinum Salisb., Cotyledon pinnata Lam.
Bryophyllum pinnatum (Lam.) Oken, Bryophyllum calycinum Salisb., Cotyledon pinnata Lam.
Description:
Flora Borinqueña Bryophyllum pinnatum Bruja Life-plant Family Crassulaceae Orpine Family Cotyledon pinnata Lamarck, Encyclopédie Méthodique Botanique 2:141.1786. Bryophyllum calycinum Salisbury, Paradisus Londinensis plate 3. 1805. Bryophyllum pinnatum Kurz, Journal of the Asiatic Society of Bengal 40 2 52. 1871. So common and plentiful on banks and in thickets, locally nearly throughout tropical and subtropical America, this large, fleshy, broad-leaved, herbaceous plant is often supposed to be native, but its original home was in the Old World, and probably in tropical Africa; when first described botanically, in 1786, it was recorded as from Isle de France (Mauritius). Early brought to gardens in tropical America for ornament and interest, it has propagated itself profusely by its viviparous habit of striking root from fallen leaves, or from fragments, and thus producing new plants. In some places it has become so well established as to be difficult to eradicate; it is abundant in Porto Rico. Bryophyllum (Greek, sprouting leaf) consists of 4, Old World species of upright herbs, with opposite, simple, or compound leaves, and perfect, regular, large, drooping flowers borne in clusters opposite the blanches. The much swollen calyx is 4-toothed; the corolla is bell-shaped, or urn-shaped, and 4-lobed; there are 8 stamens, in 2 series of 4, borne on the tube of the corolla, the filaments slender, the anthers opening lengthwise; there are 4, separate, or partly united pistils (carpels), containing many ovules, ripening into small pods (follicles) which contain many, minute seeds. Bryophyllum pinnatum (Latin, pinnately compound, referring to the leaves) is perennial in duration, smooth, fleshy, usually branched, from 0.5 to 1.5 meters high. The leaves are either simple, or often composed of a few, or several pairs of broad, toothed leaflets, and a terminal, longer one, all wavy-toothed and blunt, from 10 to 30 centimeters long. The flower-clusters are from 10 to 40 centimeters long; the bladder-like calyx becomes oblong-bell-shaped, and 3 or 3.5 centimeters long, about twice as long as the reddish corolla or less; the lobes of the corolla are lance-shaped and pointed. This is the only kind of plant of the Orpine Family wild in Porto Rico; several others are occasionally grown in gardens.
Flora Borinqueña Bryophyllum pinnatum Bruja Life-plant Family Crassulaceae Orpine Family Cotyledon pinnata Lamarck, Encyclopédie Méthodique Botanique 2:141.1786. Bryophyllum calycinum Salisbury, Paradisus Londinensis plate 3. 1805. Bryophyllum pinnatum Kurz, Journal of the Asiatic Society of Bengal 40 2 52. 1871. So common and plentiful on banks and in thickets, locally nearly throughout tropical and subtropical America, this large, fleshy, broad-leaved, herbaceous plant is often supposed to be native, but its original home was in the Old World, and probably in tropical Africa; when first described botanically, in 1786, it was recorded as from Isle de France (Mauritius). Early brought to gardens in tropical America for ornament and interest, it has propagated itself profusely by its viviparous habit of striking root from fallen leaves, or from fragments, and thus producing new plants. In some places it has become so well established as to be difficult to eradicate; it is abundant in Porto Rico. Bryophyllum (Greek, sprouting leaf) consists of 4, Old World species of upright herbs, with opposite, simple, or compound leaves, and perfect, regular, large, drooping flowers borne in clusters opposite the blanches. The much swollen calyx is 4-toothed; the corolla is bell-shaped, or urn-shaped, and 4-lobed; there are 8 stamens, in 2 series of 4, borne on the tube of the corolla, the filaments slender, the anthers opening lengthwise; there are 4, separate, or partly united pistils (carpels), containing many ovules, ripening into small pods (follicles) which contain many, minute seeds. Bryophyllum pinnatum (Latin, pinnately compound, referring to the leaves) is perennial in duration, smooth, fleshy, usually branched, from 0.5 to 1.5 meters high. The leaves are either simple, or often composed of a few, or several pairs of broad, toothed leaflets, and a terminal, longer one, all wavy-toothed and blunt, from 10 to 30 centimeters long. The flower-clusters are from 10 to 40 centimeters long; the bladder-like calyx becomes oblong-bell-shaped, and 3 or 3.5 centimeters long, about twice as long as the reddish corolla or less; the lobes of the corolla are lance-shaped and pointed. This is the only kind of plant of the Orpine Family wild in Porto Rico; several others are occasionally grown in gardens.
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