The Lady Slipper newsletter, and now blog, of the Kentucky Native Plant Society has been published since the Society’s founding in 1986. We occasionally feature an article from a past issue. In this article from 2005, Robert Paratley, Curator, University of Kentucky Herbarium, takes an in-depth look at the dogbane family, Apocynaceae. This article ran in Vol. 20, No. 1. If you would like to see these and other past issues, visit the Lady Slipper Archives, where all issues from Vol. 1, February 1986 to Vol. 39, 2024, can be found.

The world of the dogbane family Apocynaceae

Robert Paratley
Curator, University of Kentucky Herbarium

Indian-hemp or dogbane, Apocynum cannabinum, is a tall, branching perennial found in most parts of Kentucky. It is very common in old fields, roadsides and other disturbed habitats, but is not particularly conspicuous in flower, with small greenish-white flowers whose petals are fused into a small urns hape. Indian-hemp is more conspicuous in fruit, where the two parts of the pistil separate at maturity and elongate into narrow, dark, long-pointed follicles (pods). These are filled with numerous light, tufted seeds adapted to catch the wind, making it an effective seed disperser. Break the plant and the sap is milky white. Another species, the spreading dogbane (Apocynum androsaemifolium), is similar but smaller than Indian-hemp and is widespread in northern U.S. It is listed as rare in Kentucky. Both species are on any serious list of poisonous plants. Numerous cases of livestock poisoning have been recorded, although apparently no human cases are known. (Turner and Szczawinski, 1991).

Both are members of the Apocynaceae, a large, mostly tropical family of mostly woody members. This article will highlight the features of this complex, diverse family that barely gets a toehold in the temperate zone. The Latin genus name Apocynum was coined by Linnaeus. He combined two Greek roots, apo meaning “away” or “off”, and cyn meaning “dog” – a dog repellent. The common name echoes this idea. (Perhaps dogs found the scent of the European dogbane Apocynum venetum unpleasant and kept away from it.) Apocynum became the namesake genus for the family Apocynaceae, whose name is credited to the French botanist Antoine-Laurent de Jussieu in the early 1800s. Until recently, the concept of the family remained fairly consistent, including about 200 genera and 2,000 species (Cronquist, 1981). Recent research has expanded the concept of the family to include the milkweeds, which have traditionally been taught as a distinct but closely related family. Following older fashion, I will not discuss milkweeds here.

The Lady Slipper newsletter, and now blog, of the Kentucky Native Plant Society has been published since the Society’s founding in 1986. We occasionally feature an article from a past issue. In this article from 2005, David Taylor, KNPS Board Member, takes an in-depth look at bay starvine (Schisandra glabra), a rare native found in only two counties in Kentucky. This article ran in Vol. 20, No. 3. If you would like to see these and other past issues, visit the Lady Slipper Archives, where all issues from Vol. 1, February 1986 to Vol. 39, 2024, can be found.

Bay Starvine

By David Taylor

Kentucky’s flora includes some little known odd plants. Many of these are known only from a few sites. Some may be endemic to the state or be outliers of populations centered elsewhere. One of the plants in the latter category, bay starvine, is of particular interest to me. It is a high climbing vine (actually a liana, a woody vine) which throughout its range is associated with rich, sheltered sites. I was introduced to this species in Louisiana where it is known only from a few parishes (the Louisiana equivalent of county) in the southeastern part of the state. I saw it later in Mississippi and Kentucky.

Bay starvine, sometimes called magnolia vine or scarlet woodbine, is known to the botanical world as Schisandra glabra. An older name, Schisandra coccinea, is sometimes encountered. A variant of the generic name, Schizandra, is sometimes found in 19th and early 20th century literature. This species was long considered part of the Magnolia family, the Magnoliaceae or the Magnoliales (Small 1933; Correll and Johnston 1970). It, like magnolias, has simple flowers with multiple stamens and pistils, and appears to be beetle or fly pollinated. It has simple, alternate leaves, usually with scattered teeth along the margins. In general, it was considered a primitive species, closely related to magnolias. In recent years (see Vincent 1997), all species in the genus and another closely related genus of lianas were elevated to their own family, the Schisandraceae or Schisandra family. The family, while distantly related to the Magnoliaceae, is most closely related to another, the Illiciaceae, (Star Anise family) which also has a strong Old World distribution and an scattered southeastern United States distribution. The two genera, Schisandra and Kadsura, are Old World with the exception of bay starvine. The Old World species are Asian, found largely in China, Japan, Korea, Indonesia, Sumatra, Borneo, India, Myanmar, Philippines, and Thailand. There are 23 Asian species (plus several subspecies) of Schisandra, and 15 species of Kadsura. Two recent monographs (Saunders 1998, 2000) provide keys, descriptions and drawings for all species.