Plant Encyclopedia
Dichocarpum stoloniferum ("Tsurushirokaneso")
Japanese name: ツルシロカネソウ (蔓白銀草)
Scientific name: Dichocarpum stoloniferum
[Overview]
A perennial 10–25 cm tall, found in deciduous forests in the mountains on the Pacific side.
The whole plant is hairless and soft.
It has a long, wiry rhizome and produces stolons that extend far underground.
The leaves are of two kinds, basal leaves and leaves opposite on the stem. Both are pedately compound with coarsely toothed margins.
Usually one basal leaf is produced. The terminal leaflet is rhombic-ovate to broadly ovate, 1–1.5 cm long and 0.8–1.8 cm wide, and the petiole is 4–8 cm long.
Two stem leaves are produced. The terminal leaflet is ovate to rhombic-ovate, 1.5–3 cm long and 1.2–2.4 cm wide, and the bases of the petioles are fused.
At the tip of a flower stalk 2–5 cm long, 1–3 flowers 0.9–2 cm across are borne singly or in a cyme, facing upward and almost fully open.
Two leaf-like bracts are borne opposite on the flower stalk; the bracts are deeply 3-lobed with their bases fused.
The 5 petal-like white sepals are conspicuous in the flower.
The petals are spoon-shaped orange nectaries.
Cleistogamous flowers are usually not produced.
The fruit is a follicle; the two follicles spread almost horizontally.
The seeds are spherical, 0.1 cm in diameter, with a smooth, glossy surface.
Details
Translated from our Japanese encyclopedia. If anything differs, the Japanese page is correct.
