Circaea alpina
Onagraceae tribe Circaeeae
enchanter's-nightshade, small enchanter's-nightshade
3–50 cm.
petiole 0.3–5 cm;
blade usually ovate to broadly ovate, rarely suborbiculate, 1.5–7.5(–11) × 1.5–5.5(–8) cm.
opposite or whorled, [alternate];
stipules present.
0.7–12(–17) cm.
opening before elongation of axis, corymbiform;
pedicels erect or ascending at anthesis, 0.7–3.5 mm, with or without a minute, setaceous bracteole at base;
floral tube a mere constriction to 0.6 mm, funnelform to very broadly so, nectary wholly within floral tube;
sepals white or pink, sometimes purple tinged apically, oblong or ovate to broadly ovate, 0.8–1.8(–2.2) × 0.6–1.3 mm;
petals white, obtriangular or obdeltate to obovate or broadly obovate, 0.6–2 × 0.6–1.8 mm;
apical notch to 1/2 length of petal;
filaments 0.7–2.2 mm;
style 0.6–2.3 mm.
primarily protogynous, actinomorphic and 4-merous, or zygomorphic and 2-merous;
stamens 2 times as many, or as many, as sepals;
pollen shed in monads.
indehiscent, either a fleshy berry or a dry capsule, covered with stiff, hooked hairs.
clavoid, tapering smoothly to pedicel, without ribs or grooves, 1.6–2.6 × 0.5–1.2 mm, 1-locular, 1-seeded;
pedicel and mature fruit combined length 3.5–7.8 mm.
1–500, without hairs or wings.
Circaea alpina
Onagraceae tribe Circaeeae
Subspecies 6 (2 in the flora).
Circaea alpina inhabits moist places, and is also found on moss covered rocks and logs in cold temperate and boreal forests at high altitudes and latitudes throughout the northern hemisphere and in the tropics and subtropics at high elevations in southern and southeastern Asia, at elevations 0–5000 m.
(Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.)
Genera 2, species 117 (2 genera, 4 species, including 1 hybrid, in the flora).
All previous classification systems have placed Circaea and Fuchsia into different tribes, based on their morphological and geographical differences. Molecular analyses place these genera into a single clade (C. J. Bult and E. A. Zimmer 1993; E. Conti et al. 1993; R. A. Levin et al. 2003, 2004; V. S. Ford and L. D. Gottlieb 2007) that is as or more strongly supported than are other clades. The two genera share the feature of indehiscent fruits, expressed in Fuchsia as fleshy berries and in Circaea as dry fruits covered with hooklike hairs; nonhomologous indehiscent fruits also occur in Onagreae. The only occurrences of protogyny in the family occur in these two genera (not in all species of either, P. H. Raven 1979).
(Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.)
1. Stems glabrous; leaf blade margins conspicuously dentate, base usually cordate to subcordate, rarely truncate or rounded. | subsp. alpina |
1. Stems with at least a few recurved, falcate hairs; leaf blade margins subentire to minutely denticulate, base usually rounded to subcordate, rarely cordate. | subsp. pacifica |
BC
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WA
Flora NW
PNW Herbaria
WildflowerSearch
iNaturalist
USDA Plants Database
