Botanists have plenty of heroes. One of our best known, of course, is Charles Linnaeus, the "Father of Plant Taxonomy," who lived and worked in Sweden. His most memorable publication, probably, is a masterpiece called "Species Plantarum," which was published in 1753 and which attempted to list every known plant species in the world, along with a brief description.
Many plant species received their scientific names in this publication, and this week's Mystery Plant is one of them. Linnaeus received a dried, pressed specimen of this plant, sent to him from Virginia, and it is upon this specimen (now at the Linnaean Herbarium, in London) that the plant's name is based. It is a coastal plain species but is never very common anywhere.
It occurs from eastern Virginia south to the Florida panhandle, and then west to Texas, just barely. It is most likely to be found in deep, swampy forests, usually situated on slightly higher ground therein, such as bluffs or ravines. Here in the Palmetto State, the plants are perhaps associated with limestone soils in such habitats.
It often forms a tall, spreading shrub, the young twigs and lower leaf surfaces quite silky. There is a very similar species, with slightly smaller flowers, in our Southern mountains, and eight or nine additional close relatives in Japan, Korea, and China. When it is flowering, our Mystery Plant will knock your socks off; it's quite a show when you come upon it blooming like mad in the shady woods on a summer day.
Nearly.
