Who is Michx?
Where did Michaux come up with this name?
Taxonomy
Higher Taxa
Characteristics
Type
Geography and Natural History
The Great Mystery of the Eastern Asian - Eastern North American Relationship
Umbrellaleaf, American umbrellaleaf
Andre Michaux was a French botanist who spent an extraordinary amount of time exploring the Appalachian mountains of North Carolina. For a fantastic short biography, check out Charles Kuralt's tribute to Michaux.
'Di' means two in Latin and 'phyl' means leaves. The genus is simply a description of the leaf structure,
which consists of two leaves.
'Cymosa' is just another way of describing the inflorescence, which is usually a cyme.
Michaux first located D. cymosa in the mountains of North Carolina and described and drew it in his 1803 book, Flora Boreali-American. There are also different species of Diphylleia in China and Japan that were discovered later. He never had the opportunity to take part in the controversial placements of Diphylleia in a variety of families. It was placed in Diphylleiaceae (Schultz), Podophyllaceae (Tischler), and into a subclass of Berberidaceae - the Podophylloideae (Engler). In 1968, Cronquist placed the Podophylaceae into the Ranunculaceae, but in 1981, he returned it to the Berberidaceae where Diphylleia rests today (Ying et al. 1984).
(Walters and Keil 1996).
Check out the pollen of D. cymosa-->
(As described in Manual of the Vascular Flora of the Carolinas by Radford et al.)
Diphylleia cymosa Michx., which is native to North America, is a rhizomatous, perennial herb that ranges in height from 4-10 dm. The leaves are peltate and reniform, 3-5 dm wide, and cleft or parted into 2 segments. The leaf margin is coarsely dentate. The leaf that is opposite the flower stalk will be the larger leaf.
The inflorescence is either cymose or umbellate.
The flower has a white corolla of 6 petals, along with 6 sepals and 6 stamens. The style is distinct.
The fruit is a dark blue berry, 8-12 mm in diameter. (Radford et al. 1968)
Interestingly, in both D. cymosa and Podophyllum peltatum L. (a relative also in the Berberidaceae), nonflowering plants have only one leaf (Duncan and Foote 1975).
To identify the plant using a dichotomous key, see the Radford text.
All images in the links of this section are from Walters & Keil 1996.
View an excellent drawing of D. cymosa that shows all of these characteristics.
Image is from Ying et al., 1984
The lectotype (a type specimen chosen from specimens seen and cited by the original author) is located at the Michaux herbarium. It is thought to have been collected by Michaux in the mountains of North Carolina about 1786. He published his findings in 1803 in Flora Boreali-Americana (Ying et al. 1984).
D. cymosa grows in moist places in mixed deciduous and coniferous forests. It usually grows along stream banks and seepages at an altitude of 1000-1600m. It only grows in specific habitats, but since these are usually protected areas, such as the Great Smoky Mountains National Park, it is not endangered except in Alabama (TVA Endangered and Threatened Plants website). It grows strictly in the Blue Ridge of the southern Appalachian mountains (Ying et al. 1984)
Table I: North American Distribution of D. cymosa
Diphylleia cymosa
AREA
STATUS
REFERENCES
North America:
Continental United States;
CanadaYes
Radford et al., 1968
Eastern North America:
United States east of Mississippi;
Ontario and eastern
CanadaYes
Radford et al., 1968
Southeastern United States:
AL AR DE DC FL GA KY MD NC
SC TN VA WVYes
Radford et al., 1968
Southern Appalachian
States:
AL GA KY MD NC SC TN VA WVYes
Radford et al., 1968
Coastal Plain
No
Ying et al., 1984
Piedmont
No
Ying et al., 1984
Blue Ridge Mountains
Yes
Duncan & Kartesz 1981
Great Smoky Mountains
National Park
Yes
Radford et al., 1968
Ridge and Valley
No
Duncan & Kartesz 1981
Cumberland Plateau
No
Duncan & Kartesz 1981
Georgia
Yes
Duncan & Kartesz 1981
Clarke County, Georgia
No
Duncan & Kartesz 1981
The only other species of Diphylleia occur on the other side of the earth in China and Japan. Read this journal article to decide for yourself if the similarities between genus and habitat support the idea that the continents were once connected.