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Dogbane, dog-
bane
Bane may refer to:
Fictional characters
* Bane (DC Comics), an adversary of Batman
* Bane (''Harry Potter''), a centaur in the ''Harry Potter'' series
* Bane (''The Matrix''), a character in the ''Matrix'' film trilogy
* Bane the Druid, a Gu ...
, dog's bane, and other variations, some of them regional and some transient, are names for certain plants that are reputed to kill or repel dogs; "
bane
Bane may refer to:
Fictional characters
* Bane (DC Comics), an adversary of Batman
* Bane (''Harry Potter''), a centaur in the ''Harry Potter'' series
* Bane (''The Matrix''), a character in the ''Matrix'' film trilogy
* Bane the Druid, a Gu ...
" originally meant "slayer", and was later applied to plants to indicate that they were poisonous to particular creatures.
History of the term
The earliest reference to such names in common English usage was in the 16th century,
in which they were applied to various plants in the
Apocynaceae
Apocynaceae (from ''Apocynum'', Greek for "dog-away") is a family of flowering plants that includes trees, shrubs, herbs, stem succulents, and vines, commonly known as the dogbane family, because some taxa were used as dog poison Members of ...
, in particular ''
Apocynum
''Apocynum'', commonly known as dogbane or Indian hemp, is a small genus of the flowering plant family Apocynaceae. Its name comes from Ancient Greek , from "away" and "dog", referring to dogbane (''Cionura erecta''), which was used to poiso ...
''. Some plants in the
Asclepiadoideae
The Asclepiadoideae are a subfamily of plants in the family Apocynaceae. Formerly, they were treated as a separate family under the name Asclepiadaceae, e.g. by APG II, and known as the milkweed family.
They form a group of perennial herbs, twi ...
, now a subfamily of the Apocynaceae, but until recently regarded as the separate family
Asclepiadaceae, were also called dogbane even before the two families were united. It is not clear how much earlier the name had been in use in the
English language
English is a West Germanic language of the Indo-European language family, with its earliest forms spoken by the inhabitants of early medieval England. It is named after the Angles, one of the ancient Germanic peoples that migrated to the is ...
, which originated about 1000 years earlier in
mediaeval times. However, centuries before the appearance of the English language,
Pedanius Dioscorides
Pedanius Dioscorides ( grc-gre, Πεδάνιος Διοσκουρίδης, ; 40–90 AD), “the father of pharmacognosy”, was a Greek physician, pharmacologist, botanist, and author of ''De materia medica'' (, On Medical Material) —a 5-vol ...
, in his ''
De Materia Medica
(Latin name for the Greek work , , both meaning "On Medical Material") is a pharmacopoeia of medicinal plants and the medicines that can be obtained from them. The five-volume work was written between 50 and 70 CE by Pedanius Dioscorides, ...
'', had already described members of the Apocynaceae, such as ''Apocynum'' and ''
Cynanchum
''Cynanchum'' is a genus of about 300 species including some swallowworts, belonging to the family Apocynaceae. The taxon name comes from Greek ''kynos'' (meaning "dog") and ''anchein'' ("to choke"), hence the common name for several species is d ...
'' by names equivalent to "dogbane"; ''Apocynum'' literally means "dog killer" or "dog remover", and "Cynanchum" means "dog strangler". In modern times some species of ''
Nerium
''Nerium oleander'' ( ), most commonly known as oleander or nerium, is a shrub or small tree cultivated worldwide in temperate and subtropical areas as an ornamental and landscaping plant. It is the only species currently classified in the ge ...
'', ''
Periploca'' and ''
Trachelospermum
''Trachelospermum'' Star Jasmine, Confederate Jasmine, is a genus of evergreen woody vines in the dogbane family Apocynaceae, first described as a genus in 1851. All species are native to southern and eastern Asia.
They have long stems climbi ...
'', also in the Apocynaceae, are called dogbane or variants such as "climbing dogbane".
Modern significance of the term "dogbane family"
Some modern sources restrict "dogbane" in its strict sense to the
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 ...
''Apocynum'', but it is doubtful that any such narrow definition could be justified even if it were enforceable. More widely, when authors refer to the "dogbane family" without qualification, they almost always mean Apocynaceae.
"Dogbane" as a term outside the family Apocynaceae
Common names
In biology, a common name of a taxon or organism (also known as a vernacular name, English name, colloquial name, country name, popular name, or farmer's name) is a name that is based on the normal language of everyday life; and is often contra ...
, either informal or
vernacular
A vernacular or vernacular language is in contrast with a "standard language". It refers to the language or dialect that is spoken by people that are inhabiting a particular country or region. The vernacular is typically the native language, n ...
, are seldom definitive, let alone stable. Some poisonous or offensive plants in practically unrelated families had similar common names in the vernacular and writings of various times; for example an edition ''De Materia Medica'', apparently of the early sixteenth century, mentions that species of ''
Aconitum'' (family
Ranunculaceae
Ranunculaceae (buttercup or crowfoot family; Latin "little frog", from "frog") is a family of over 2,000 known species of flowering plants in 43 genera, distributed worldwide.
The largest genera are ''Ranunculus'' (600 species), ''Delphinium' ...
) were known as either "dog killer" (or murderer) or "wolf killer" ("''...Sunt qui Cynoctonon: qui Lycoctonon... uocent''").
Again, in modern times
Isocoma menziesii in the family
Asteraceae
The family Asteraceae, alternatively Compositae, consists of over 32,000 known species of flowering plants in over 1,900 genera within the order Asterales. Commonly referred to as the aster, daisy, composite, or sunflower family, Compositae w ...
is known in some regions as dogbane.
Recent aberrant application of the term
The term "dogbane", either in genuine confusion or as a deliberate sales ploy, has been applied without obvious justification to various groups of plants, such as some species of ''
Plectranthus
''Plectranthus'' is a genus of about 85 species of flowering plants from the sage family, Lamiaceae, found mostly in southern and tropical Africa and Madagascar. Common names include spur-flower. ''Plectranthus'' species are herbaceous perennia ...
'', a genus in the catnip subfamily
Nepetoideae
Nepetoideae is a subfamily of plants in the family Lamiaceae.
, the Angiosperm Phylogeny Website (APweb) accepted the following genera: The format of the authorities is not the IPNI standard.
*''Acanthomintha'' (A. Gray) Bentham & J. D. Hooker
...
of the mint family Lamiaceae. None have been reported to be especially harmful to dogs or cats, but some have been said to emit repellent essential oils when bruised, discouraging pets from visiting garden beds.
[{{cite web, url=http://succulent-plant.com/families/lamiaceae.html, title=Lamiaceae]
References
Apocynaceae
Plant common names