Hexastylis virginica
Virginia ginger, Virginia heartleaf
internodes short, leaves crowded at rhizome apex.
blade variegate or not, cordate, subcordate, or subreniform.
calyx tube cylindric to narrowly cylindric-urceolate, sometimes with prominent transverse ridge just below sinuses, 8-15 × 6-12 mm, inner surface with high reticulations, lobes erect or weakly spreading, 2-4 × 7-9 mm, adaxially puberulent;
stamen connective not extending beyond pollen sacs;
ovary ca. 1/3-inferior;
ovules 8 per locule;
styles notched at apex.
= 26.
Hexastylis virginica
Plants of Hexastylis virginica with small, cylindric-urceolate calices have been treated as a distinct species, H. memmingeri. The two calyx types are often found in the same population, however, so H. memmingeri seems unworthy of taxonomic recognition at any rank.
Prior to the study by H. L. Blomquist (1957), many botanists interpreted Hexastylis virginica in a very broad sense, so old herbarium specimens of many other species of Hexastylis are often annotated as H. virginica.
The Cherokee used Hexastylis virginica medicinally to stop blood from passing (D. E. Moerman 1986, as Asarum virginicum).
(Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.)
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