''Pulmonaria'' (lungwort) 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
flowering plant
Flowering plants are plants that bear flowers and fruits, and form the clade Angiospermae (), commonly called angiosperms. The term "angiosperm" is derived from the Greek words ('container, vessel') and ('seed'), and refers to those plants th ...
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 ...
Boraginaceae,
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 Europe and western Asia, with one species (''P. mollissima'') east to central Asia. According to various estimates there may be between 10 and 18
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 ...
found in the wild.
Description
Lungworts are
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 ...
or
herbaceous
Herbaceous plants are vascular plants that have no persistent woody stems above ground. This broad category of plants includes many perennials, and nearly all annuals and biennials.
Definitions of "herb" and "herbaceous"
The fourth edition of t ...
perennials
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 widel ...
that form clumps or rosettes. They are covered in hairs of varied length and stiffness, and sometimes also bear
glands
In animals, a gland is a group of cells in an animal's body that synthesizes substances (such as hormones) for release into the bloodstream (endocrine gland) or into cavities inside the body or its outer surface (exocrine gland).
Structure
De ...
. The underground parts consist of a slowly creeping
rhizome
In botany and dendrology, a rhizome (; , ) is a modified subterranean plant stem that sends out roots and shoots from its nodes. Rhizomes are also called creeping rootstalks or just rootstalks. Rhizomes develop from axillary buds and grow hori ...
with
adventitious Important structures in plant development are buds, shoots, roots, leaves, and flowers; plants produce these tissues and structures throughout their life from meristems located at the tips of organs, or between mature tissues. Thus, a living plant a ...
roots. Flowering stems are unbranched, rough, covered with bristly hairs, usually not exceeding , with a few exceptions (''
P. mollis'', ''
P. vallarsae''). The stems are usually upright, or slightly spreading. The plants reach in height, spreading up to wide.
The leaves are arranged in rosettes. The blades are usually large, from narrowly lanceolate to oval, with the base ranging from heart shaped to very gradually narrowing, and can have a sharply pointed or blunt tip. The leaf margin is always entire, but in some species and forms can be rather wavy. Basal leaves are carried on stalks that can be short or longer than the leaf blade in various species. Stem leaves are smaller and often narrower, and are unstalked or clasping the stem. All leaves are covered with hairs that are usually bristly, or occasionally soft. The leaves are often prominently spotted in black and blue, or sometimes in pale green, or unspotted. The spots are due to the presence of foliage air pockets. These pockets, which cool the lower leaf surface, mask the presence of chlorophyll.
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 ...
is a terminal
scorpioid cyme as a cymose
corymb
Corymb is a botanical term for an inflorescence with the flowers growing in such a fashion that the outermost are borne on longer pedicels than the inner, bringing all flowers up to a common level. A corymb has a flattish top with a superficial re ...
, with
bracts
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 ...
, on short
pedicels
In botany, a pedicel is a stem that attaches a single flower to the inflorescence. Such inflorescences are described as ''pedicellate''.
Description
Pedicel refers to a structure connecting a single flower to its inflorescence. In the absenc ...
(stalks), reaching just above the foliage. The flowers are heterostylous, with two distinct forms of flower within each species; those with short stamens and long styles ("pin" flowers) and those with long stamens and short styles ("thrum" flowers), with the former usually being larger and more showy. The
calyx is hairy, 5-lobed, tubular or funnel-shaped, enlarging as the fruit ripens. The
corolla is funnel-shaped and consists of a long, cylindrical tube and a limb with five shallow lobes. Within the corolla throat, five tufts of hairs alternate with the stamens to form a ring. The colour of the corolla varies from purple, violet or blue to shades of pink and red, or sometimes white. The colour of the flower in bud is often pink to violet when they first emerge, which then changes to blue as the flower matures. The
stamens
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 ...
and
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 ...
are included within the corolla and not protruding.
The
nutlet
A nut is a fruit consisting of a hard or tough nutshell protecting a kernel which is usually edible. In general usage and in a culinary sense, a wide variety of dry seeds are called nuts, but in a botanical context "nut" implies that the shell ...
s are smooth, egg-shaped, brownish, up to long and wide, each containing a single seed. Up to four nutlets per flower are produced, ripening mostly in summer.
Taxonomy
''Pulmonaria'' 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 ...
in the
Boraginoideae
Boraginoideae is a subfamily of the plant family Boraginaceae ', with about 42 genera. That family is defined in a much broader sense (Boraginaceae ') in the Angiosperm Phylogeny Group (APG) system of classification for flowering plants. The APG ...
subfamily
In biological classification, a subfamily (Latin: ', plural ') is an auxiliary (intermediate) taxonomic rank, next below family but more inclusive than genus. Standard nomenclature rules end subfamily botanical names with "-oideae", and zoologi ...
of ''Boraginaceae'', consisting of approximately 18
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 ...
, although species delineation (
speciation
Speciation is the evolutionary process by which populations evolve to become distinct species. The biologist Orator F. Cook coined the term in 1906 for cladogenesis, the splitting of lineages, as opposed to anagenesis, phyletic evolution within ...
) has proved problematic. Within the Boraginoideae, ''Pulmonaria'' is placed in the
tribe
The term tribe is used in many different contexts to refer to a category of human social group. The predominant worldwide usage of the term in English language, English is in the discipline of anthropology. This definition is contested, in p ...
Boragineae, where it is closely related to ''
Borago
''Borago'', or borage, is a genus of five species of herbs native to the Mediterranean, with one species, ''Borago officinalis'', cultivated and naturalized throughout the world.
Uses
''Borago officinalis'' is used medicinally, in companion pl ...
''.
Etymology
The scientific name ''Pulmonaria'' is derived from Latin ''pulmo'' (lung).
In the times of
sympathetic magic
Sympathetic magic, also known as imitative magic, is a type of magic based on imitation or correspondence.
Similarity and contagion
James George Frazer coined the term "sympathetic magic" in '' The Golden Bough'' (1889); Richard Andree, however ...
, the spotted oval leaves of ''P. officinalis'' were thought to symbolize diseased, ulcerated lungs, and so were used to treat pulmonary infections. The common name in many languages also refers to lungs, as in English "lungwort", German ''Lungenkraut'', French ''herbe aux poumons'', Serbian ''plućnjak''... In some East European languages, the common name is derived from a word for honey, e.g. Russian ''medunitza'', Polish ''miodunka'', Serbian ''meduniče'', Bulgarian "медуница".
Distribution and habitat
The species of the genus are distributed across
Eurasia
Eurasia (, ) is the largest continental area on Earth, comprising all of Europe and Asia. Primarily in the Northern and Eastern Hemispheres, it spans from the British Isles and the Iberian Peninsula in the west to the Japanese archipelago a ...
.
Ecology
''Pulmonaria'' is an early spring flowering
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 ...
perennial, retaining its leaves till late winter, just before the new growth emerges.
Pests and diseases
''Pulmonaria'' species are used as food plants by the
larva
A larva (; plural larvae ) is a distinct juvenile form many animals undergo before metamorphosis into adults. Animals with indirect development such as insects, amphibians, or cnidarians typically have a larval phase of their life cycle.
The ...
e of some
Lepidoptera
Lepidoptera ( ) is an order (biology), order of insects that includes butterfly, butterflies and moths (both are called lepidopterans). About 180,000 species of the Lepidoptera are described, in 126 Family (biology), families and 46 Taxonomic r ...
species. These include the
case-bearer
__NOTOC__
The Coleophoridae are a family of small moths, belonging to the huge superfamily Gelechioidea. Collectively known as case-bearers, casebearing moths or case moths, this family is represented on all continents, but the majority are found ...
''
Coleophora pulmonariella'', which feeds exclusively on ''P. saccharata'', and the
moth
Moths are a paraphyletic group of insects that includes all members of the order Lepidoptera that are not butterflies, with moths making up the vast majority of the order. There are thought to be approximately 160,000 species of moth, many of w ...
''
Ethmia pusiella'', which has been recorded on ''P. officinalis''.
Cultivation
![The Soviet Union 1988 CPA 5967 stamp (Deciduous forest flowers](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/2/23/The_Soviet_Union_1988_CPA_5967_stamp_%28Deciduous_forest_flowers._Unspotted_lungwort%29.jpg)
Of the known species of ''Pulmonaria'', only about eight are known in cultivation. Pulmonaria are used as ornamental garden plants, particularly ''
P. saccharata'', ''
P. angustifolia''
and ''
P. longifolia''. Others include ''P. affinis''.They are especially valued as
groundcover
Groundcover or ground cover is any plant that grows over an area of ground. Groundcover provides protection of the topsoil from erosion and drought.
In an ecosystem, the ground cover forms the layer of vegetation below the shrub layer known as t ...
in damp shaded areas, producing their blue and/or pink flowers in late winter and early spring, accompanied by dense clusters of heart-shaped leaves that are often strikingly mottled and marbled, throughout summer.
The following
cultivars
A cultivar is a type of Horticulture, cultivated plant that people have selected for desired phenotypic trait, traits and when Plant propagation, propagated retain those traits. Methods used to propagate cultivars include: division, root and st ...
, of mixed or uncertain parentage, have 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 ...
’s
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 ...
:-
*’
Blue Ensign
The Blue Ensign is a flag, one of several British ensigns, used by certain organisations or territories associated or formerly associated with the United Kingdom. It is used either plain or Defacement (flag), defaced with a Heraldic badge, ...
’
*'Cotton Cool'
*’Diana Clare’
*’Lewis Palmer’
*'Little Star'
* = 'Ocupol'
*’Sissinghurst White’
*'
Trevi Fountain
The Trevi Fountain ( it, Fontana di Trevi) is an 18th-century fountain in the Trevi district in Rome, Italy, designed by Italian architect Nicola Salvi and completed by Giuseppe Pannini and several others. Standing high and wide, it is the larg ...
'
*’Vera May’
References
Bibliography
*
*
*
Flora Europaea: ''Pulmonaria''Flora of China: ''Pulmonaria''* Bennett, M. (2003
''Pulmonarias and the Borage Family'' B.T.Batsford, 240pp.
* Hewitt, J. (1994). ''Pulmonarias''. Hardy Plant Society, 51pp.
External links
{{Taxonbar, from=Q630406
Boraginaceae genera