''Scandia'' is a genus of flowering plants belonging to the family Apiaceae. It is also in tribe Aciphylleae, with plants, '' Gingidia'' Dawson and '' Lignocarpa'' Dawson, with all three genera being native to New Zealand. They are scrambling shrubs with white flowers.

Description

''Scandia'' is a perennial subshrubs or

liana A liana is a long- stemmed, woody vine that is rooted in the soil at ground level and uses trees, as well as other means of vertical support, to climb up to the canopy in search of direct sunlight. The word ''liana'' does not refer to a ta ...

(a woody climbing plant).Joachim W. Kadereit and Volker Bittrich (Editors) It is Glabrous (lacking surface ornamentation such as hairs, scales or bristles; smooth). They form woody stems, especially in the older parts of the plant. The vegetative stems have elongated internodes which are decumbent (having branches growing horizontally along the ground but which are turned up at the ends) or it can grow through nearby shrubs. ''Scandia geniculata'' has weaker stems than ''Scandia rosifolia'' and may climb up to or more through other closeby vegetation. It has cauline (borne on an aerial stem) leaves, which are simple or once

pinnately Pinnation (also called pennation) is the arrangement of feather-like or multi-divided features arising from both sides of a common axis. Pinnation occurs in biological morphology, in crystals, such as some forms of ice or metal crystals, and in ...

compound and they are subfleshy or subcoriaceous (slightly leathery). The leaflets are ovate to obovate (in shape) and serrate (toothed with asymmetrical teeth) or crenate (blunt or rounded teeth) on the edges. The

stomata In botany, a stoma (from Greek ''στόμα'', "mouth", plural "stomata"), also called a stomate (plural "stomates"), is a pore found in the epidermis of leaves, stems, and other organs, that controls the rate of gas exchange. The pore is bor ...

(pores in the leaf) are restricted to the under surface of the leaf. It has a sheath open at the top and produced into a pair of membranous lobes. The petioles (leaf stallks) have broad adaxial grooves. It is gynodioecious (in which female and hermaphroditic plants coexist within a population). The flowers are terminal (at the ends of stems), it has simple bracts, which are narrow-linear in shape and folicaeous (resembling a leaf or leaves). It bears large quantities of white flower heads that have a great resemblance to that of 'Queen Anne’s Lace' (or ''

Ammi majus ''Ammi majus'', commonly called bishop's flower, false bishop's weed, laceflower, bullwort, etc., is a member of the carrot family Apiaceae. The plant, which has white lace-like flower clusters, has a large distribution through Southern Europe, ...

''). The

sepals 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 ...

are smaller than petals, and the petals of female flowers are smaller than those of the male and hermaphrodite plants. The female flowers have conspicuous petals and rudimentary staminodes (a sterile stamen). It has slender styles, and conical shaped stylopodium (elongate stigma that resembles a style; or a false style). After flowering, it produces a seed capsule/ fruit, which is ovate-elliptsoid in shape and slightly compressed dorsally or subterete (not precisely cylindrical). The mericarps (one segment of a fruit) has five acute ribs. The dorsal and lateral ribs are acute or narrowly winged and the marginal ribs are broadly winged. The carpophore (an elongation of the base of the gynoecium which looks distinct) is bifid (forked) almost to the base. The vittae (an oil tube) is large and has a resin canal (vallecular),

commissural A commissure () is the location at which two objects abut or are joined. The term is used especially in the fields of anatomy and biology. * The most common usage of the term refers to the brain's commissures, of which there are five. Such a commi ...

(has 2 faces). It has a rib oil ducts in each rib. The seeds are trasversely subterete to slightly compressed dorsally (in shape). They are sulcate under the vittae, with the face convex.

Biochemistry

It is

diploid Ploidy () is the number of complete sets of chromosomes in a cell, and hence the number of possible alleles for autosomal and pseudoautosomal genes. Sets of chromosomes refer to the number of maternal and paternal chromosome copies, respectively ...

, containing two copies of each chromosome and has the

somatic Somatic may refer to: * Somatic (biology), referring to the cells of the body in contrast to the germ line cells ** Somatic cell, a non-gametic cell in a multicellular organism * Somatic nervous system, the portion of the vertebrate nervous sys ...

number of 2n=22.

Habitat

It is native to New Zealand. Both species are found in coastal or low-altitude inland habitats, ''Scandia rosaefolia'' is found in northern and central parts of the

North Island The North Island, also officially named Te Ika-a-Māui, is one of the two main islands of New Zealand, separated from the larger but much less populous South Island by the Cook Strait. The island's area is , making it the world's 14th-largest ...

and ''Scandia geniculata'' is found in the southern part of the North Island and in the east of the

South Island The South Island, also officially named , is the larger of the two major islands of New Zealand in surface area, the other being the smaller but more populous North Island. It is bordered to the north by Cook Strait, to the west by the Tasman ...

Taxonomy

It contains two species that were formerly placed in the genus '' Angelica'' (also within the same Apiaceae family). ''Scandia rosifolia'' was designated as ''Angelica rosaefolia''. It was also originally classified by W.J. Hooker as ''Anisotome rosaefolia''. It was first described and published in New Zealand J. Bot. Vol.5 on page 407 in 1967. The genus name of ''Scandia'' is derived from the Latin, ''scandere'', which means 'to climb'. The genus is recognized by the United States Department of Agriculture and the

Agricultural Research Service The Agricultural Research Service (ARS) is the principal in-house research agency of the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA). ARS is one of four agencies in USDA's Research, Education and Economics mission area. ARS is charged with ext ...

, but they do not list any known species.

Known species

There are 2 accepted species; ''Scandia geniculata'' is commonly known as 'New Zealand Aniseed'. The Latin

specific epithet In taxonomy, binomial nomenclature ("two-term naming system"), also called nomenclature ("two-name naming system") or binary nomenclature, is a formal system of naming species of living things by giving each a name composed of two parts, bot ...

of 'geniculata' is derived from the Latin word for 'jointed', no doubt referring to the manner by which its climbing stems are arranged.

Uses

Both species of ''Scandia'' have been used by the Dutch garden designer and author, Piet Oudolf.

References

Other sources

* Lawrence James Metcalf, The Cultivation of New Zealand Plants, Godwit Press, 1993 * Lucy B. Moore, The Oxford Book of New Zealand Plants, Oxford University Press, 1978 {{Taxonbar, from=Q14943705 Apioideae Plants described in 1967 Flora of New Zealand Taxa named by John Dawson (botanist) Apioideae genera