Very nice picture sir. Thanks for sharing this uniqe flower. Regards Giby. On Jan 15, 2012 10:21 AM, "Gurcharan Singh" <singh...@gmail.com> wrote:
> I am taking this liberty of uploading my second Flora Picture of 2011, a > photograph I badly wanted to include in my book but could not because I had > misplaced this folder of our our first outing in California to Shoreline > Park. Today I found this while scanning though my external storage drives. > > The plant, *Anemopsis* *californica* (Nutt.) Hook. & Arn. of family > Saururaceae, commonly known as Yerba mansa or apache-beads, the only > species in the genus and endemic to California growing in coastal marshy > areas, belonging to paleoherb complex, the early basal branch of > angiosperms. Hickey & Taylor (1996) who proposed herbaceous origin > hypothesis believe that flowers of Piperaceae (another paleoherb family) > and Anemopsis arose through suppression of system of inflorescence axis of > gnetopsids. In the above photograph the flower-like structure is in fact a > fragrant spike inflorescence subtended at base by involucral bracts looking > like petals. The small flowers number 75-150 on spike and each has white > orbicular 4-6 mm long bract adnate to ovary, usually six stamens and 3 > united carpels with parietal placentation and brown capsule fruit. > > The aromatic stoloniferous stock was once fashioned into cylindrical > necklace by American Indiands and hence the name apache beads. more > commonly known as Yerba (supposed to stand for herb in Spanish) mansa in > medicine it was a reputed medicine for malaria and dysentry, as also > treatment for swollen gums and soar throat. It also prevents build up of > kidney stones. Dried roots can be used as dusting powder for for diaper > rashes and other infected parts. Leaves are often used to make poultice to > relieve muscle swelling and inflammation. > > > -- > Dr. Gurcharan Singh > Retired Associate Professor > SGTB Khalsa College, University of Delhi, Delhi-110007 > Res: 932 Anand Kunj, Vikas Puri, New Delhi-110018. > Phone: 011-25518297 Mob: 9810359089 > http://people.du.ac.in/~singhg45/ > >
