Flora of North America species comparison

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Circaea canadensis subsp. canadensis

Onagraceae tribe Circaeeae
Photo is of parent taxon

circée du Canada, enchanter's nightshade
Habit Herbs glabrous, glandular puberulent distally; stolons not tipped by tubers. Herbs, perennial, or shrubs, [epiphytes, lianas, or trees].
Stems

20–90 cm.

Leaves

petiole (1.3–)2.5–5.5 cm;

blade narrowly to broadly ovate or oblong-ovate, 5–16 × 2.5–8.5 cm, base cordate to rounded, margins denticulate, apex acute to slightly acuminate.

opposite or whorled, [alternate];

stipules present.
Inflorescences

2.5–30 cm.

Flowers

opening after elongation of axis, ± loosely spaced;

pedicels spreading at anthesis, 2.5–6.5 mm, with a minute, setaceous bracteole at base;

floral tube (0.4–)0.7–1.2 mm, funnelform, nectary projecting 0.2–0.7 mm beyond opening of floral tube;

sepals green or purple, broadly elliptic or oblong to oblong-ovate, 1.9–3.8 × 1.2–2.4 mm;

petals usually white, rarely pink, broadly deltate to broadly obovate, obcordate, or broadly obovate, (1.3–)1.6–2.9 × (1.5–)2.2–4 mm;

apical notch 1/3 to slightly more than 1/2 length of petal;

filaments 1.2–2.8 mm, pollen highly fertile (greater than 80%);

style 2.5–5.5 mm, stigma surrounded by anthers at anthesis.

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.
Fruits

indehiscent, either a fleshy berry or a dry capsule, covered with stiff, hooked hairs.
Capsules

pyriform to subglobose, rounded, usually obliquely, to pedicel, with corky, prominent ribs and deep grooves, 2.8–4.5 × 1.9–3.6 mm;

pedicel and mature fruit combined length 6.3–11.2 mm.

Seeds

1–500, without hairs or wings.
2n

= 22.

Circaea canadensis subsp. canadensis

Onagraceae tribe Circaeeae
Phenology Flowering summer.
Habitat Cool, temperate deciduous and mixed forests, forest margins, along streams.
Elevation 0–600 m. (0–2000 ft.)
Distribution
from FNA
AL; AR; CT; DC; DE; GA; IA; IL; IN; KS; KY; LA; MA; MD; ME; MI; MN; MO; MS; NC; ND; NE; NH; NJ; NY; OH; OK; PA; RI; SC; SD; TN; VA; VT; WI; WV; MB; NB; NS; ON; PE; QC; temperate deciduous and mixed forests; along streams; forest margins; Cool
North America; Mexico; Central America; South America; West Indies (Hispaniola); Eurasia; n Africa; Pacific Islands (New Zealand, Society Islands)
Discussion

Subspecies quadrisulcata (Maximowicz) Boufford, which closely resembles subsp. canadensis, is in eastern Asia, extending from Japan across Russia to the vicinity of Moscow (D. E. Boufford 1982b). The presence of a minute bracteole at the base of the pedicel in subsp. canadensis is the only consistent feature that separates it from subsp. quadrisulcata, although subsp. canadensis tends to be somewhat larger overall.

(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.)
Source FNA vol. 10. FNA vol. 10.
Parent taxa Onagraceae > subfam. Onagroideae > tribe Circaeeae > Circaea > Circaea canadensis Onagraceae > subfam. Onagroideae
Subordinate taxa
Synonyms C. canadensis var. virginiana Fuchsieae de
Name authority unknown Dumortier: FFl. Belg., 88. (1827)
Web links 
Unless otherwise noted, all data comes from the online version of the Flora of North America, who have made most of their content available via a Creative Commons license (CC BY 4.0).



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