''Phryma leptostachya'', or lopseed, is a

perennial A perennial plant or simply perennial is a plant that lives more than two years. The term ('' per-'' + '' -ennial'', "through the years") is often used to differentiate a plant from shorter-lived annuals and biennials. The term is also wide ...

herb In general use, herbs are a widely distributed and widespread group of plants, excluding vegetables and other plants consumed for macronutrients, with savory or aromatic properties that are used for flavoring and garnishing food, for medicinal ...

of the genus ''

Phryma ''Phryma'' is a genus of flowering plant in the family Phrymaceae, native to temperate Asia and eastern North America. Taxonomy The genus ''Phryma'' was erected by Carl Linnaeus in 1753 with the sole species ''Phryma leptostachya''. The Japanes ...

''. When distinguished from ''

Phryma oblongifolia ''Phryma oblongifolia'' is a species of flowering plant in the family Phrymaceae, native from temperate Asia southwards to the Himalayas and north Vietnam. It was first described by Gen-ichi Koidzumi in 1929. Its status as a separate species was ...

'' and ''

Phryma nana ''Phryma nana'' is a species of flowering plant in the family Phrymaceae, native to Japan. It was first described by the Japanese botanist Gen-ichi Koidzumi in 1939. Its status as a separate species was not usually accepted, and it was treated a ...

'', it is native to eastern North America. The plant stands about 0.3 to 1.0 meters tall, and the

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 bear a number of small (4 mm) tube-shaped white to pink flowers.

Taxonomy

''Phryma leptostachya'' 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. It was the only species he placed in his genus ''Phryma''. Two further species were later described by the Japanese botanist

Gen-ichi Koidzumi was a Japanese botanist, author of several papers and monographs on phytogeography including work on roses and Amygdaloideae (Rosaceae), maples (Aceraceae), mulberries (the genus '' Morus''), and many other plants. His name is sometimes transli ...

, ''Phryma oblongifolia'' and ''Phryma nana''. However, these species were generally not accepted, and populations in Asia and North America were usually treated as the single species ''Phryma leptostachya'', being distinguished only at the rank of subspecies and variety. In 2017, treating all three as full species was supported by morphological and earlier

molecular phylogenetic Molecular phylogenetics () is the branch of phylogeny that analyzes genetic, hereditary molecular differences, predominantly in DNA sequences, to gain information on an organism's evolutionary relationships. From these analyses, it is possible to ...

evidence, and all three are accepted by

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 ...

, , although other sources may continue to use a single species with only intraspecific divisions.

References

External links

* Phrymaceae Flora of North America {{lamiales-stub