''Daphne'' (Greek: Δάφνη "laurel") is a

genus Genus ( plural genera ) is a taxonomic rank used in the biological classification of extant taxon, living and fossil organisms as well as Virus classification#ICTV classification, viruses. In the hierarchy of biological classification, genus com ...

of between 70 and 95

species In biology, a species is the basic unit of classification and a taxonomic rank of an organism, as well as a unit of biodiversity. A species is often defined as the largest group of organisms in which any two individuals of the appropriate s ...

deciduous In the fields of horticulture and Botany, the term ''deciduous'' () means "falling off at maturity" and "tending to fall off", in reference to trees and shrubs that seasonally shed leaves, usually in the autumn; to the shedding of petals, aft ...

and

evergreen In botany, an evergreen is a plant which has foliage that remains green and functional through more than one growing season. This also pertains to plants that retain their foliage only in warm climates, and contrasts with deciduous plants, which ...

shrub A shrub (often also called a bush) is a small-to-medium-sized perennial woody plant. Unlike herbaceous plants, shrubs have persistent woody stems above the ground. Shrubs can be either deciduous or evergreen. They are distinguished from trees ...

s in the

family Family (from la, familia) is a Social group, group of people related either by consanguinity (by recognized birth) or Affinity (law), affinity (by marriage or other relationship). The purpose of the family is to maintain the well-being of its ...

Thymelaeaceae,

native Native may refer to: People * Jus soli, citizenship by right of birth * Indigenous peoples, peoples with a set of specific rights based on their historical ties to a particular territory ** Native Americans (disambiguation) In arts and entert ...

to Asia, Europe and north Africa. They are noted for their scented

flower A flower, sometimes known as a bloom or blossom, is the reproductive structure found in flowering plants (plants of the division Angiospermae). The biological function of a flower is to facilitate reproduction, usually by providing a mechani ...

s and often brightly coloured

berries A berry is a small, pulpy, and often edible fruit. Typically, berries are juicy, rounded, brightly colored, sweet, sour or tart, and do not have a stone or pit, although many pips or seeds may be present. Common examples are strawberries, raspb ...

. Two species are used to make paper. Many species are grown in gardens as ornamental plants; the smaller species are often used in rock gardens. All parts of daphnes are poisonous, especially the berries.

Description

''Daphne'' species are shrubs, with upright or prostrate stems. Upright species may grow to . Their leaves are undivided, mostly arranged alternately (although opposite in '' D. genkwa''), and have short petioles (stalks). The leaves tend to be clustered towards the end of the stems and are of different shapes, although always longer than wide. The leaf surface may be smooth (glabrous) or hairy. Many species flower in late winter or very early spring. The flowers are grouped into clusters (

inflorescence An inflorescence is a group or cluster of flowers arranged on a stem that is composed of a main branch or a complicated arrangement of branches. Morphologically, it is the modified part of the shoot of seed plants where flowers are formed o ...

s), either in the leaf

axil A leaf ( : leaves) is any of the principal appendages of a vascular plant stem, usually borne laterally aboveground and specialized for photosynthesis. Leaves are collectively called foliage, as in "autumn foliage", while the leaves, st ...

s towards the end of the stems or forming terminal heads. The inflorescences lack

bract In botany, a bract is a modified or specialized leaf, especially one associated with a reproductive structure such as a flower, inflorescence axis or cone scale. Bracts are usually different from foliage leaves. They may be smaller, larger, or of ...

s. Individual flowers completely lack

petal Petals are modified Leaf, leaves that surround the reproductive parts of flowers. They are often advertising coloration, brightly colored or unusually shaped to attract pollinators. All of the petals of a flower are collectively known as the ''c ...

s and are formed by four (rarely five)

oid

sepal A sepal () is a part of the flower of angiosperms (flowering plants). Usually green, sepals typically function as protection for the flower in bud, and often as support for the petals when in bloom., p. 106 The term ''sepalum'' was coined b ...

s, tubular at the base with free lobes at the apex. They range in colour from white, greenish yellow or yellow to bright pink and purple. Most of the evergreen species have greenish flowers, while the

species tend to have pink flowers. There are twice the number of

stamen The stamen (plural ''stamina'' or ''stamens'') is the pollen-producing reproductive organ of a flower. Collectively the stamens form the androecium., p. 10 Morphology and terminology A stamen typically consists of a stalk called the filame ...

s as sepals, usually eight, arranged in two series. Stamens either have short filaments or lack filaments altogether and are usually held inside the sepal tube. The

style Style is a manner of doing or presenting things and may refer to: * Architectural style, the features that make a building or structure historically identifiable * Design, the process of creating something * Fashion, a prevailing mode of clothing ...

is short or absent, and the stigma is head-shaped (capitate). The

ovary The ovary is an organ in the female reproductive system that produces an ovum. When released, this travels down the fallopian tube into the uterus, where it may become fertilized by a sperm. There is an ovary () found on each side of the body. ...

has a single chamber (

locule A locule (plural locules) or loculus (plural loculi) (meaning "little place" in Latin) is a small cavity or compartment within an organ or part of an organism (animal, plant, or fungus). In angiosperms (flowering plants), the term ''locule'' usu ...

). The fruits are one-seeded, and are either fleshy

or dry and leathery (

drupaceous In botany, a drupe (or stone fruit) is an indehiscent fruit in which an outer fleshy part (exocarp, or skin, and mesocarp, or flesh) surrounds a single shell (the ''pit'', ''stone'', or ''pyrena'') of hardened endocarp with a seed (''kernel'') ...

). When ripe the fruit is usually red or yellow, sometimes black.

Taxonomy

The genus ''Daphne'' was first described by

Carl Linnaeus Carl Linnaeus (; 23 May 1707 – 10 January 1778), also known after his ennoblement in 1761 as Carl von Linné Blunt (2004), p. 171. (), was a Swedish botanist, zoologist, taxonomist, and physician who formalised binomial nomenclature, the ...

in 1753 in ''

Species Plantarum ' (Latin for "The Species of Plants") is a book by Carl Linnaeus, originally published in 1753, which lists every species of plant known at the time, classified into genera. It is the first work to consistently apply binomial names and was the ...

''. Linnaeus recognized 10 species, including ''

Daphne mezereum ''Daphne mezereum'', commonly known as mezereum, mezereon, February daphne, spurge laurel or spurge olive, is a species of '' Daphne'' in the flowering plant family Thymelaeaceae, native to most of Europe and Western Asia, north to northern Scan ...

'', ''

Daphne laureola ''Daphne laureola'', commonly called spurge-laurel, is a shrub in the flowering plant family Thymelaeaceae. Despite the name, this woodland plant is neither a spurge nor a laurel. Its native range covers much of Europe and extends to Algeria, M ...

'' and ''

Daphne cneorum ''Daphne cneorum'', the garland flower or rose daphne, is a species of flowering plant in the family Thymelaeaceae, native to the mountains of central and southern Europe. It is a prostrate spreading evergreen shrub to , grown for its dense clu ...

''. Some of his species are now placed in other related genera (e.g. Linnaeus's ''Daphne thymelaea'' is now ''

Thymelaea sanamunda ''Thymelaea'' (English: the Sparrow-worts) is a genus of about 30 species of evergreen shrubs and herbs in the flowering plant family Thymelaeaceae, native to the Canary Islands, the Mediterranean region, north to central Europe, and east to ...

''). The number of species in the genus varies considerably between different authorities. The ''

Flora of China The flora of China consists of a diverse range of plant species including over 39,000 vascular plants, 27,000 species of fungi and 3000 species of bryophytes.Wu, Z. Y., P. H. Raven & D. Y. Hong, eds. 2006. Flora of China. Vol. 22 (Poaceae). Sc ...

'' states there are about 95 species, 41 of which are endemic to China. Some of these species were reduced to subspecies or varieties by Josef Halda in a series of papers from 1997 onwards, culminating in a monograph on the genus. Version 1.1 of The Plant List accepts 83 species. The ''

Flora of North America The ''Flora of North America North of Mexico'' (usually referred to as ''FNA'') is a multivolume work describing the native plants and naturalized plants of North America, including the United States, Canada, St. Pierre and Miquelon, and Greenla ...

'' states there are 70 species.

Phylogeny and generic limits

A 2002 study based on

chloroplast DNA Chloroplast DNA (cpDNA) is the DNA located in chloroplasts, which are photosynthetic organelles located within the cells of some eukaryotic organisms. Chloroplasts, like other types of plastid, contain a genome separate from that in the cell nu ...

placed ''Daphne'' in a group of related genera; however there was only one species representing each genus. A further study published in 2009 included an extra species of ''

Wikstroemia ''Wikstroemia'' is a genus of 55-70 species of flowering shrubs and small trees in the mezereon family, Thymelaeaceae. Hawaiian species are known by the common name ‘ākia. Medicinal uses '' Wikstroemia indica'' () is one of the 50 fundament ...

'' and suggested that this genus was

paraphyletic In taxonomy (general), taxonomy, a group is paraphyletic if it consists of the group's most recent common ancestor, last common ancestor and most of its descendants, excluding a few Monophyly, monophyletic subgroups. The group is said to be pa ...

with respect to '' Stellera'', but otherwise agreed with the

cladogram A cladogram (from Greek ''clados'' "branch" and ''gramma'' "character") is a diagram used in cladistics to show relations among organisms. A cladogram is not, however, an evolutionary tree because it does not show how ancestors are related to d ...

above. The distinction between ''Wikstroemia'' and ''Daphne'' is difficult to make; Halda included ''Wikstroemia'' within ''Daphne''. The cladogram shown above suggests that other genera would need to be included as well to make ''Daphne''

monophyletic In cladistics for a group of organisms, monophyly is the condition of being a clade—that is, a group of taxa composed only of a common ancestor (or more precisely an ancestral population) and all of its lineal descendants. Monophyletic gro ...

Species

, ''

Plants of the World Online Plants of the World Online (POWO) is an online database published by the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew. It was launched in March 2017 with the ultimate aim being "to enable users to access information on all the world's known seed-bearing plants by ...

'' accepts the following species: *'' Daphne acutiloba'' Rehder *'' Daphne alpina'' L. *'' Daphne altaica'' Pall. *'' Daphne angustiloba'' Rehder *'' Daphne arbuscula'' Čelak. *'' Daphne arisanensis'' Hayata *'' Daphne aurantiaca'' Diels *'' Daphne axillaris'' (Merr. & Chun) Chun & C.F.Wei *'' Daphne bholua'' Buch.-Ham. ex D.Don *''

Daphne blagayana ''Daphne blagayana'' is a species of flowering plant in the genus ''Daphne''. It was discovered in 1837 near Polhov Gradec (now northeastern Slovenia) by Heinrich Freyer and named after the botanist Rihard Blagaj. Description Growing to , thi ...

'' Freyer *'' Daphne brevituba'' H.F.Zhou ex C.Y.Chang *'' Daphne caucasica'' Pall. *'' Daphne championii'' Benth. *'' Daphne chingshuishaniana'' S.S.Ying *''

'' L. *'' Daphne depauperata'' H.F.Zhou ex C.Y.Chang *'' Daphne domini'' Halda *'' Daphne emeiensis'' C.Y.Chang *'' Daphne erosiloba'' C.Y.Chang *'' Daphne esquirolii'' H.Lév. *'' Daphne feddei'' H.Lév. *'' Daphne formosana'' (Hayata) S.S.Ying *'' Daphne gemmata'' E.Pritz. ex Diels *''

Daphne genkwa ''Daphne genkwa'' is a deciduous shrub and one of the Chinese herbology#50 fundamental herbs, 50 fundamental herbs used in traditional Chinese medicine, where it has the name ''yuán huā'' (). The plant was discovered by the prolific British pl ...

'' Siebold & Zucc. *'' Daphne giraldii'' Nitsche *'' Daphne glomerata'' Lam. *'' Daphne gnidioides'' Jaub. & Spach *''

Daphne gnidium ''Daphne gnidium'' (commonly known as the flax-leaved daphne) is a poisonous evergreen shrub from the Mediterranean region with narrow, dense dark-green foliage and white fragrant flowers. Description ''Daphne gnidium'' is characterized by upri ...

'' L. *'' Daphne gracilis'' E.Pritz. *'' Daphne grueningiana'' H.J.P.Winkl. *'' Daphne hekouensis'' H.W.Li & Y.M.Shui *'' Daphne holosericea'' (Diels) Hamaya *'' Daphne jarmilae'' Halda *'' Daphne jasminea'' Sm. *''

Daphne jezoensis ''Daphne jezoensis'' is a shrub, of the family Thymelaeaceae. It is native to northern Japan and parts of eastern Russia Russia (, , ), or the Russian Federation, is a transcontinental country spanning Eastern Europe and Northern As ...

'' Maxim. *'' Daphne jinyunensis'' C.Yung Chang *'' Daphne jinzhaiensis'' D.C.Zhang & J.Z.Shao *'' Daphne kamtschatica'' Maxim. *'' Daphne kingdon-wardii'' Halda *'' Daphne kiusiana'' Miq. *'' Daphne koreana'' Nakai *'' Daphne kosaninii'' (Stoj.) Stoj. *'' Daphne kurdica'' (Bornm.) Bornm. *'' Daphne laciniata'' Lecomte *''

'' L. *'' Daphne leishanensis'' H.F.Zhou ex C.Y.Chang *'' Daphne limprichtii'' H.J.P.Winkl. *'' Daphne linoides'' (Hemsl.) Halda *'' Daphne longilobata'' (Lecomte) Turrill *'' Daphne longituba'' C.Yung Chang *'' Daphne ludlowii'' D.G.Long & Rae *'' Daphne luzonica'' C.B.Rob. *'' Daphne macrantha'' Ludlow *'' Daphne malyana'' Blecic *'' Daphne mauritanica'' Nieto Fel. *''

'' L. *'' Daphne miyabeana'' Makino *'' Daphne modesta'' Rehder *'' Daphne morrisonensis'' C.E.Chang *'' Daphne mucronata'' Royle *'' Daphne myrtilloides'' Nitsche *'' Daphne nana'' Tagawa *''

Daphne odora ''Daphne odora'', winter daphne, is a species of flowering plant in the family Thymelaeaceae, native to China, later spread to Japan and Korea. It is an evergreen shrub, grown for its very fragrant, fleshy, pale-pink, tubular flowers, each with f ...

'' Thunb. *'' Daphne ogisui'' C.D.Brickell, B.Mathew & Yin Z.Wang *''

Daphne oleoides ''Daphne oleoides'' is a shrub of the family Thymelaeaceae. It is native to the southern Europe, northern Africa, and Asia Minor Anatolia, tr, Anadolu Yarımadası), and the Anatolian plateau, also known as Asia Minor, is a large penins ...

'' Schreb. *'' Daphne pachyphylla'' D.Fang *'' Daphne papyracea'' Wall. ex G. Don *'' Daphne pedunculata'' H.F.Zhou ex C.Y.Chang *'' Daphne penicillata'' Rehder *'' Daphne petraea'' Leyb. *''

Daphne pontica ''Daphne pontica'', commonly known as twin-flowered or Pontic daphne, is a species of flowering plant in the family Thymelaeaceae, native to Bulgaria, northern Turkey and the Caucasus. It is a small evergreen shrub growing to tall by wide, wi ...

'' L. *'' Daphne pseudomezereum'' A.Gray *'' Daphne purpurascens'' S.C.Huang *'' Daphne retusa'' Hemsl. *'' Daphne reginaldi-farreri'' Halda *'' Daphne rhynchocarpa'' C.Y.Chang *'' Daphne rodriguezii'' Texidor *'' Daphne rosmarinifolia'' Rehder *'' Daphne salicina'' H.Lév. *'' Daphne sericea'' Vahl *'' Daphne skipetarum'' Halda *'' Daphne sojakii'' Halda *'' Daphne sophia'' Kolenicz. *'' Daphne souliei'' (Lecomte) Aymonin *'' Daphne stapfii'' Bornm. & Keissl. *'' Daphne striata'' Tratt. *'' Daphne sureil'' W.W.Sm. & Cave *'' Daphne tangutica'' Maxim. *'' Daphne taurica'' Kotov *'' Daphne taylorii'' Halda *'' Daphne tenuiflora'' Bureau & Franch. *'' Daphne thanguensis'' J.Ghosh, Midday, S.K.Dey & D.Maity *'' Daphne tripartita'' H.F.Zhou ex C.Y.Chang *'' Daphne velenovskyi'' Halda *'' Daphne wangiana'' (Hamaya) Halda *'' Daphne wolongensis'' C.D.Brickell & B.Mathew *'' Daphne xichouensis'' H.F.Zhou ex C.Y.Chang *'' Daphne yunnanensis'' H.F.Zhou ex C.Y.Chang

Hybrids

Hybrids accepted by ''Plants of the World Online'' are: * ''Daphne'' × ''hauseri'' Halda * ''Daphne'' × ''hendersonii'' Hodgkin ex C.D.Brickell & B.Mathew – natural hybrid ''D. petraea'' × ''D. cneorum'' * ''Daphne'' × ''houtteana'' Lindl. & Paxton * ''Daphne'' × ''juraseki'' Halda * ''Daphne'' × ''rossetii'' H.Correvon & Halda * ''Daphne'' × ''savensis'' Daksk., Selikar & Vre * ''Daphne'' × ''sillingeri'' Halda * ''Daphne'' × ''thauma'' Farrer – natural hybrid ''D. petraea'' × ''D. striata'' Numerous artificial hybrids are cultivated as ornamental plants. These include: * ''D.'' × ''burkwoodii'' – ''D. cneorum'' × ''D. caucasica'' * ''D.'' × ''napolitana'' Lodd. has gained the

Royal Horticultural Society The Royal Horticultural Society (RHS), founded in 1804 as the Horticultural Society of London, is the UK's leading gardening charity. The RHS promotes horticulture through its five gardens at Wisley (Surrey), Hyde Hall (Essex), Harlow Carr (Nort ...

Award of Garden Merit The Award of Garden Merit (AGM) is a long-established annual award for plants by the British Royal Horticultural Society (RHS). It is based on assessment of the plants' performance under UK growing conditions. History The Award of Garden Merit ...

– origin not known * ''D.'' × ''susannae'' C.D.Brickell – artificial hybrid ''D. arbuscula'' × ''D. sericea'' (syn. ''D. collina''); the correct name may be ''D.'' × ''medfordensis'' Halda * ''D.'' × ''schlyteri'' – artificial hybrid ''D. cneorum'' × ''D. arbuscula''

Distribution

''Daphne'' is a Eurasian genus, being native to central and southern Europe and Asia, from Britain to Japan. Some species are also found in north Africa. Two species, ''D. mezereum'' and ''D. laureola'', have been introduced into North America.

Uses

Two species, '' Daphne bholua'' and '' Daphne papyracea'', both called ''lokta'', are sustainably harvested in

Nepal Nepal (; ne, नेपाल ), formerly the Federal Democratic Republic of Nepal ( ne, सङ्घीय लोकतान्त्रिक गणतन्त्र नेपाल ), is a landlocked country in South Asia. It is mai ...

and

Bhutan Bhutan (; dz, འབྲུག་ཡུལ་, Druk Yul ), officially the Kingdom of Bhutan,), is a landlocked country in South Asia. It is situated in the Eastern Himalayas, between China in the north and India in the south. A mountainous ...

for paper production. Many species are cultivated as ornamental shrubs in gardens., pp. 36–39 The smaller species are used as rock garden plants or, in the case of those more difficult to grow, as plants for the alpine house. It is recommended that they are grown in well drained but moisture-retentive soil, avoiding strongly acid conditions. Most species prefer a sunny position, although some are woodland plants (e.g. ''D. mezereum'' and '' D. pontica''). Propagation is by seed, cuttings or layering.

Award of garden merit

The following species, hybrids and cultivars are recipients of the

: *''Daphne arbuscula'' *''Daphne bholua'' 'Jacqueline Postill' *''Daphne bholua'' var. ''glacialis'' 'Gurkha' *''Daphne'' × ''burkwoodii'' 'Somerset' *''Daphne cneorum'' 'Eximia' *''Daphne'' × ''rollsdorfii'' 'Wilhelm Schacht' *''Daphne tangutica'' Retusa Group *''Daphne'' × ''transatlantica'' = 'Blafra'

PBR PBR may refer to: Science and technology * Passive bistatic radar * Partition boot record * Pebble bed reactor, a type of nuclear reactor * Peripheral benzodiazepine receptor, another name for translocator protein * Phosphorus bromide * Photobio ...

Toxicity

All parts of daphnes are toxic, the berries being particularly so. One active compound is

daphnin Daphnin is a plant toxin with the chemical formula C15H16O9 and is one of the active compounds present in the Eurasian and North African genus ''Daphne'' of the Thymelaeaceae The Thymelaeaceae are a cosmopolitan family of flowering plants comp ...

, a

glycoside In chemistry, a glycoside is a molecule in which a sugar is bound to another functional group via a glycosidic bond. Glycosides play numerous important roles in living organisms. Many plants store chemicals in the form of inactive glycosides. ...

, combining

glucose Glucose is a simple sugar with the molecular formula . Glucose is overall the most abundant monosaccharide, a subcategory of carbohydrates. Glucose is mainly made by plants and most algae during photosynthesis from water and carbon dioxide, using ...

with daphnetin. Some species have been shown to contain a further toxin,

mezerein Mezerein is a toxic diterpene ester found in the sap of ''Daphne mezereum'' and related plants. Plants of the genera ''Euphorbiaceae'' and ''Thymelaeaceae'' possess a wide variety of different phorbol esters, which share the capacity of mimicking ...

. Symptoms of ingestion include burning sensations and lesions of the mouth and upper digestive tract,

gastroenteritis Gastroenteritis, also known as infectious diarrhea and gastro, is an inflammation of the gastrointestinal tract including the stomach and intestine. Symptoms may include diarrhea, vomiting, and abdominal pain. Fever, lack of energy, and dehydra ...

and

diarrhoea Diarrhea, also spelled diarrhoea, is the condition of having at least three loose, liquid, or watery bowel movements each day. It often lasts for a few days and can result in dehydration due to fluid loss. Signs of dehydration often begin wi ...

, and in severe cases, damage to the kidneys (

nephritis Nephritis is inflammation of the kidneys and may involve the glomeruli, tubules, or interstitial tissue surrounding the glomeruli and tubules. It is one of several different types of nephropathy. Types * Glomerulonephritis is inflammation of th ...

), irregular heart rhythm, and

coma A coma is a deep state of prolonged unconsciousness in which a person cannot be awakened, fails to respond normally to painful stimuli, light, or sound, lacks a normal wake-sleep cycle and does not initiate voluntary actions. Coma patients exhi ...

Allergenicity

Daphnes have an OPALS allergy scale rating of 5 out of 10, indicating moderate potential to cause allergic reactions, exacerbated by over-use of the same plant throughout a garden. The sap and berry juice can cause dermatitis and the scent may affect the odor-sensitive.

Gallery

File:Daphne jezoensis 6.JPG, ''

'' File:Daphne pseudomezereum (flower s2).JPG, '' Daphne pseudomezereum'' File:Spurge Laurel (Daphne laureola) - Flickr - gailhampshire.jpg, ''

'' File:Daphne blagayana (33946067631).jpg, ''

'' File:Daphne glomerata Lam.jpg, '' Daphne glomerata'' File:Daphne odora-ja01.jpg, ''

'' File:Daphne petraea ENBLA02.JPG, '' Daphne petraea'' File:Daphne mezereum0.jpg, ''

'' – deciduous File:Daphne giraldii 2015-06-20 3137.jpg, '' Daphne giraldii'' – unripe fruits File:Daphne gnidium1.jpg, ''

'' – ripe fruits File:Daphne jezoensis 4.JPG, ''

'' – ripe fruits File:Daphne × transatlantica Eternal Fragrance = 'Blafra'.png, alt=Daphne_transatlantica_EternalFragrance_Blafra, ''Daphne'' × ''transatlantica'' = 'Blafra'

References

Bibliography

* * *

External links

Flora Europaea: ''Daphne''
{{Authority control Malvales genera Medicinal plants Poisonous plants